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The Ozzfest Survival Guide

The stuff you need to know to survive the fest*


This list was taken from posts from: evileskimo, gatorgrl, Charity_the_slave (me), sicnpooflicious, Alice Unchained, peacethruaddiction, aphazel, Ozzy1414, DiaryofaDopeFiend, & IHAVEHIV.

Before the concert
- Get there early! Avoid traffic delays that'll end up costing you your chance to see the first couple of bands, not to mention good parking

- If you go with friends set a meeting place in case you get lost its a big place

- Eat well before you go...the food prices are outrageous.

Things to take with you
- Sunscreen!!! This cannot be stressed enough!!!! You are going to be out in the sun baking all day long so save yourself some agony and cover yourself in some heavy duty waterproof sun block BEFORE you get there. Nothing will kill your joy faster than being in constant pain from sunburn, especially being in all that body heat.

- TAKE SOMETHING FOR AUTOGRAPHS! There are bands all over the place, so you will probably get something autographed by someone. Be it your shirt, an autograph book, your Ozzfest program, the bands c.d. booklet, or a piece of paper from a notebook. Just take something. Or you'll regret it afterwards.

- Dont take any more money in the place than you want to spend. Cause chances are youll get drunk and spend the shit anyway.

- Sneak a camera in. You wont regret it. This way the memories will last forever.

- Before you leave the house make sure you have your tickets.... trust me someone out there has done this.

- Bring sheets for your car in case you get muddy you'll fuck up the interior.

Things to and not to wear
- If youre on the ground, the area can get REALLY dust, and the temp. Can get REALLY hot, especially with all the body heat around you. Have a bandana or something if you plan on pitting, cause you'll be coughing and spitting up brown afterwards. And along those lines, if you're small and you can hardly breathe, never be afraid to ask the people around you to gift you a lift up. You can always surf your way out.

- Temporary hair color - Yes freaks are beautiful people but don't try and blend with them by using temp hair color for the day. Sure you'll look good till you start to sweat or worse yet, the rains start. Then you will look like a sad wannabe with that shit running all down your face and ruining your clothes.

- Dont put any moose/gel/hair spray in your hair before the show... your head just becomes a sticky mess, I found that out the hard way in 2000

- Wear shitty cloths, they WILL get muddy, ripped, wet, and smell horrible

- If your one of us older Ozzfest freaks make sure if your losing your hair you keep lotion or a hat on so you don't fry your head.

- Dress for the weather...it's usually very hot, a lot of you out there like to wear those long baggy pants and long sleeve shirts and thats ok but by 6:00 p.m. your the ones usually in such a bad mood because your so hot.

People
- Be Yourself! Dont try and be an ass because you see someone else doing something stupid. Just have some fucking fun, that's what it's all about.

- HAVE FUN!!! That is the absolute most important thing, no matter what. You didn't pay between 35-50 bucks to sit and bitch on the lawn or seats about how 'lame' the band playing is or whatever. Hell, last year, sure main stage sucked a bit, but you know what? I just made the best out of the bad situation. During crazy town, I took my dinner break. During linkin park and papa roach, I ended up meeting 3 people that were REALLY cool, even let me use their ticket stubs to get back to seats since I had lawn and snuck up there in the first place. That and got to read my Ozzfest program

- If you're on the ground and someone goes down, you help their ass back up. Best put would be in the Ozzfest 2000 program- in Metal, we're ALL brothers and sisters.

- You are going to see A LOT of weird, unusual shit there. People with pierced or tattooed everything, people vomiting, all types of different clothing, and as Ive seen twice, people fucking on the lawn. LET IT ALL SLIDE and hell, enjoy it yourself! You know what's great about Ozzfest? Its the one-day of the year where you get to be the person you really are and do just whatever the hell you feel like, and NO ONE gives a shit. And let me tell you something here, some of the "freaky people" are the absolute COOLEST, nicest people you'll ever meet. Mosh, crowd surf, sing at the top of your lungs no matter how bad your voice is; it's OZZFEST!!!

- Expect many naked people. You will see many boobs that day and if your a girl and u dont like seeing girl's boobs, u gotta suck it up and deal cuz u see many boobs LOL

- Also, help the drunk people walk up steps or anything, trust me they need help LOL

- If you take your girlfriend or wife, there will be people looking at her so don't go getting all pissed off. Just be glad youre leaving with her at the end of the night.

- DO NOT BRING A PREGO G/F! - Ozzfest or any concert is not a place for pregnant people. End of Story

- Throwing shit at bands-Kids thats just common sense. Would you want to be hit or have your fav guitar fucked up by some punk?? So use common sense.

- If someone runs into you and you're on the floor, relax, don't take it personally because behind you, there's probably a pit that's the size of half a gym floor and bodies are flying around everywhere.

- Don't make assumptions about people there based solely on how they are dressed (jock, loser, etc.). Ozzfest is about the music and someone's attire does not determine how true of a fan they are. Give everyone a fair shake and you may meet some really interesting people you would have otherwise overlooked.

Food, Drinks & Drugs
- If you're up front and the roadies, security or whomever gives you all a bottle of water to cool down or something, share it with everyone around you. If you guzzle the whole thing, you're going to have a lot of pissed off dehydrated people around you. If you share it, you're looked on as good people

- Dont eat a bunch of pizza and drink a bunch of beer in the 100-degree heat. YOU WILL REGRET IT.

- Bottled Water-Always pay 2-3 bucks for a bottle of anything. Even if its soda, you can always dump it out and load it up with water. I did that the past few times and it helped me a lot. Also if your venue doesnt allow caps on the bottles, bring one in ya shoe or hide it somewhere...cause if the bottle tips, you know the rest.

- Make sure to take enough weed. GOD I cannot stress this enough. 9 or 10 joints between two people WILL NOT CUT IT. Because chances are you will smoke other peoples pot, and in turn they will smoke yours ('cause ya know good and god damn well when a fine ass girl comes up to you and tells ya to light it up, youre going to!). Stuff a good OZ in your shoe.

- If youre a straight up pothead and youve only got one joint left...it would be wise to get away from everyone...cause trust me when you fire one up, EVERYONE WANTS A HIT.

- Dont sell weed to anyone you dont know...friends have had bad experiences w/this...

- If you do drink make sure someone else is driving you home. Ozzy says it every year...
"if you've been drinking today or are wasting out of your fucking mind, call a taxi. don't drive yourself home. we want to see all you crazy fuckers again next year!"

- Don't drink too much too early. In Ozzfest 2000 I the drunken idiot passed out on the lawn by 2 pm.trust me, not a very fun place to be! I lost my friends and everything lol...I woke up beside two old fuckers smoking a joint about 5...Not having a clue where I was...Then I heard the music and was like "fuck yeah I'm at Ozzfest...let me hit that joint"

Everything Else
- Stick around for Ozzy!!! Youll be glad you did

- Always check behind you, you never know when there's a crowd surfer that'll end up kicking you in the back of the head. Believe me, I know. Ive ended up getting knocked to the fucking ground from blows to the head

- GO TO ALL THE BOOTHS! There is free shit all over the place at Ozzfest, so check out EVERYTHING and see what you can get. Especially, the Hot Topic tent. They give you some nice sampler c.d.'s. There are free stickers and stuff everywhere, street teamers galore, if someone hands you something for free, and you don't like the band or whatever, KEEP IT. You might have a friend at home or you might meet someone that might be interested in it. And they'll love you forever for just giving it to them. Oh... and if you get more than one of something... keep them too. (I ended up with like 6 of those Hot Topic C.D. samplers... and found out a LOT of people that I knew that went didn't even know about them. But when they heard who was on it, they wanted one. So I gave 'em one. So now I just have 1 for myself, and everyone else is happy.) If you don't have anything to put it in... Find something, or bring something with you from the start (if the venue allows). Try to find something cheep (I got a nice sized bag that I put EVERYTHING in including my Ozzfest Program for only $5!)

- I'm not sure if it's just an Ozzfest thing, or a venue thing. But when you get in there, find a booth or something that has some papers sitting out. You want one of those papers, they give you the line up for the whole day... but grab more than one, someone might see you with one and ask you who are playing next, you could just give 'em one of your extra's. They'll be happy you did.

- Dont take on anything you cant handle, if the pit looks too crazy step back no one will think any less of you, hey I'm 19 5'3 115lbs and Im in there but I know when to back down like Slayer you have to be fucking nuts to play with those big boys

- if you go in the pits carry as little as possible you dont want to break you cell phone, or beeper

- Lawn Seating-Defiantly take into consideration where you sit, this could be the difference between watching your fav band and trying to duck sod or grass or anything else flying at your noodle. I was at the top of the lawn at the 2001 Pittsburgh Ozzfest and I like many others threw shit. I saw some kids/adults bleeding and I will defiantly take that into consideration before I throw shit again.





To read the entire "Survival Guide" thread from the Ozzfest board, click here.

*These are just suggestions compiled by the devoted Ozzfest goers from the Ozzfest board. You don't have to follow them, but they are recommended so you can have the full Ozzfest experience.