Coachella 2022: Influencers Left ‘Stranded in the Dirt With No Water’ at REVOLVE Festival
The first weekend of the Coachella music festival seemed to go off without a hitch. However, a designer clothing brand’s unaffiliated event close by led to a firestorm of complaints from influencers. The REVOLVE Festival is an invite-only event with celebrity guests like Jack Harlow, Kim Kardashian, Post Malone, and Halsey. Things didn’t go as planned for influencers, and it led some people to compare conditions to the disastrous Fyre Festival.
Influencers left ‘stranded in the dirt with no water’
REVOLVE Festival is supposed to be a VIP luxury event for celebrities and influencers. The party is not officially affiliated with Coachella. Instead, it is more like an exclusive party close by at a different location. On the first weekend of Coachella 2022, organizers invited many influencers to the party in the desert of La Quinta, CA.
They were promised a VIP experience, including luxury transportation to REVOLVE Festival on Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately for the invited influencers, they had to spend hours in the hot sun waiting in line for shuttle buses to the festival. After waiting for five hours, some didn’t even make it into the party.
LA Magazine writer Joseph Kapsch broke the story on Twitter on Saturday, ‘Influencers stranded in the dirt with no water, under the hot sun for HOURS, waiting for buses that aren’t coming to bring them to actual festival.’ He added the stranded influencers were starting to panic from heat and lack of water with “alleged fights, screaming, and everyone is dizzy.”
A TikTok influencer describes Revolve Festival ‘I felt like cattle and I was on a content farm’
The Daily Mail reported that TikTok influencer Maddie White no longer supports the company and won’t ever work for them again. She was paid $2000 and given REVOLVE credit to attend the party, but her experience led her to tell her 2.4 million followers she’s done working with the clothing brand.
“After about two and a half hours of waiting in the burning sun — it was 90 degrees and there was no water, two members of staff for the whole thing — I finally made it inside the festival.”
Unfortunately, once inside, White and other influencers didn’t have a chance to cool off. “There was also basically no shade. Maybe tiny little areas for people to sit in. All of the real shaded areas were for real VIPs, like Timothée Chalamet.”
“Best way I can describe it is I felt like cattle and I was on a content farm.”
Another TikTok influencer shared she didn’t even get into the event after waiting five hours in the hot sun. Kristi Howard said, “Waiting 5 hours in line like we were told didn’t get us anywhere thx to great security & organized transportation.”
“Now I love REVOLVE, everything I wear is REVOLVE, but REVOLVE Festival was a s***show, it was a disaster.”
REVOLVE says shuttle access was limited ‘in order to remain in compliance with safety requirements’
REVOLVE responded to the online complaints in a statement to E! News “In anticipation of the high level of interest in attending REVOLVE Festival this year, REVOLVE worked closely with all appropriate city and safety authorities to ensure a safe and secure path for guests to access the 2-day invitation-only event.”
“With an event of this magnitude, city regulations mandate an off-site location for guest check-in and parking, as well as licensed shuttle transportation to and from the venue. The off-site lot was set up with guest parking, as well as rideshare drop-off and pickup access with added WIFI for car booking, restrooms, shade, water, medics and security.”
“As the festival was reaching capacity late Saturday afternoon,” the statement continued, “shuttle access to the venue was limited in order to remain in compliance with safety requirements causing longer wait times for entry and resulting in some guests not being able to attend the festival. The safety of our guests is of the utmost importance to us and we will always make that a priority.”
