Festival season has commenced, but your FYP page is likely filled with more than just desert-ready OOTDs this year. Coachella attendees are bashing the event on social media over its "diabolical" food prices—which are giving the Super Bowl a run for its money, literally.
Creator Ruth Viveros shared her $102 spread over the weekend, and not only did she describe the food as "not good, not good at all" and "freezing cold," but by the looks of it, those Benjamins did not go far. The bill included just two taco plates, loaded nachos, and two lemonades.
"Coachella is an Erewhon festival," one user joked. "Coachella seems like a miserable money trap that everyone falls for," another said.
"These prices are diabolical," a third user commented.
According to her price breakdown, the lemonades—which were "mostly ice"—cost $17 alone. She wasn't the only Coachella attendee shocked by the prices. "Expensive. Most items start at $15-20. 'Meals' are like $20-30," one person commented on Reddit. "Basically 2.5x the price you can grab it outside the festival," another said. "It’s $30 for Nate’s Nashville hot chicken slider and fries lmao," another chimed in.
Even if you don't necessarily find the meals overpriced—one festival goer called a $13 slice of pizza "not too bad"—even girl math can't justify the menu costs. A single general admission ticket alone starts at $649—never mind shuttle bus tickets, parking passes, VIP passes, or a hotel/Airbnb/tent.
"The fact that GENERAL ADMISSION is $600 and you still have to pay that much for mid food is making me irrationally angry," another social media user commented on TikTok.
Another Coachella subreddit reported equally hefty drink prices, per Page Six. Attendees have to cough up $23 for a Vodka Red Bull, $17 for hard liquors like Absolut, Jameson Irish Whiskey, and Malibu Rum, and even a can of White Claw is $16. One person went as far as to call the organizers "thieves."
While the sticker shock might feel especially harsh this year (ya know, given the potential impending recession), this is hardly new information. Last year, a Coachella attendee went viral after paying $64 for a cucumber water and two breakfast burritos. To each their own, but I'd...pack a snack—or just not go.
