Lovin' Life Music Fest's new map draws backlash, refund requests
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Photo: Lovin' Life Music Fest
Construction is underway on stages and other event infrastructure for the Lovin' Life Music Fest, a three-day festival happening May 3-5 in First Ward. Fans already seem to be very unhappy with the layout, though.
Why it matters: This is the music festival's inaugural year with major headliners like Post Malone, Stevie Nicks and Noah Kahan. If it's successful, it'll set the tone for similar events in Uptown.
Driving the news: On Friday, festival organizers released an updated map, showing where the main stages, food stations, entrances and VIP and general admission sections are going to be.
- In less than an hour, their Instagram post was flooded with angry comments from GA ticket holders who say the VIP sections are unfairly laid out.
- Quickly, however, many of those comments from frustrated fans were deleted.
What they're saying: "I've never seen a festival restrict the ENTIRE main stage to GA," Molly commented.
- "It's giving Fyre Fest fr," Hannah wrote.
- "Lowkey want my money back now. This info would have been nice to know beforehand." Jess said.
- "300 dollars just to be that far back is kinda crazy," Caitlyn added.
The other side: Festival organizers were "surprised by some of the reactions to the map that we posted on social today, given that the festival footprint and ticket type access has not changed," a spokesperson said in a statement to Axios.
- The statement continued: "However, we do understand that the cartoon-like nature of the graphic, that is not to scale, could be confusing to some."
Zoom out: This kind of festival layout is not unique to Lovin' Life. Other music festivals like Pitchfork in Chicago and New Orleans Jazz Fest have similar VIP stage prioritization and have gotten backlash from fans.
If you go: General admission three-day passes to Lovin' Life are $299, VIP is $669 and Super VIP is $1,299.
- One-day passes aren't available yet but will be closer to the date of the festival.
Go deeper: Everything you need to know about Lovin' Life Music Fest in Charlotte