Every year, someone in the group chat pings us asking why festival tickets cost more than they did a few weeks ago. The answer is boring: they waited. Here’s how ticket tiers, payment plans, and on-sale timing work, using what EDC Las Vegas and Coachella actually did for 2027.
TLDR: when to buy festival tickets
- EDC Las Vegas 2027: passes went on sale May 22, 2026, and the price has already climbed since launch. Buying now beats buying later.
- Coachella 2027: the advance sale opened May 1, 2026. A second sale is expected after the lineup drops. Prices are expected to rise as tiers sell out.
- Payment plans: your friend if you’ll stick to the schedule. They can lock in the price you see at checkout while you pay over time.
- Camping fests: add-ons like camping, parking, and shuttles can push the total past the face value of the ticket.
- Resale in the final weeks: coin flip. Sometimes under face, sometimes way over.
The short answer: when to buy festival tickets in 2027
Buy as early as you can commit without your plans falling apart.
The first tier is almost always the cheapest legit price you’ll see for a given festival. The “just wait, deals will pop up” strategy is a gamble, and big festivals are selling out earlier than they used to. Lineups drop, FOMO kicks in, and the cheap tier is gone before you finish debating with your roommate.
The exception: smaller or newer festivals where tickets sometimes soften closer to the date because the promoter is still filling capacity. If you’re not sure which category your fest falls into, look at last year’s timeline. Did the first tier sell out? Did they add more tiers? That’s your answer.
How festival ticket tiers actually work
Most people think tiers move on dates. At a lot of festivals they move on quantity, with each tier opening when the last one sells through. Some also raise prices on a schedule, so check the festival’s own ticket page.
First tier (early bird / advance sale): the cheapest window. Coachella’s advance sale for 2027 opened before the lineup was even announced, so those buyers bought blind.
Later tiers: each one costs more than the one before. EDC is a clean example. For 2027, single-weekend GA started at $399.99 at the May 22, 2026 launch, and the official ticket page now lists $479.99 for the first weekend (Dusk, May 14 to 16) and $529.99 for the second (Dawn, May 21 to 23). Prices on that page are all-in before taxes and delivery fees.
GA on-sale after the lineup: the price most casual buyers see and assume is the “normal” price. It’s usually not. It’s the later-tier price.
Payment plans: you put down a small deposit, lock in the price that’s active that day, and pay the rest over time. Plans differ by festival, so read the terms before you start. EDC’s page lists a $10 deposit per pass, and Coachella’s 2027 sale offered a plan with a $49 deposit at checkout.
Fees: ticketing platforms add their own fees on top of face value, and the amount varies by festival and platform. Compare the final checkout total across fests, not the headline price.
EDC Las Vegas: the 2027 plan
EDC 2027 is a two-weekend format, EDC Dusk (May 14 to 16) and EDC Dawn (May 21 to 23), and you can buy either weekend or both. The official page tells you to buy only through Front Gate Tickets, which is the right call, since scammers love EDC.
Launch pricing for one weekend of GA started at $399.99, and a pass for both weekends started at $599. Today the official page shows higher prices across GA, GA+, and VIP, which is the tier system doing exactly what it does. If you’re going, don’t sit on it.
Shuttles, lodging, and camping are separate costs. Book lodging when you book the ticket, not after. My squad has locked in tickets the moment they opened, no exceptions, ever since the year Tati lost her phone at kineticFIELD and we all agreed we’re not doing anything last-minute again.
Coachella: the 2027 plan
Coachella 2027 runs April 9 to 11 and April 16 to 18 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. The advance sale opened Friday, May 1, 2026 at 11am PT, before the lineup announcement, with GA starting at around $599. A later sale is expected after the lineup is revealed, and prices are expected to go up as tiers sell out.
Both weekends are expected to carry the same lineup, so pick the weekend that fits your calendar instead of waiting around hoping one gets cheaper. Camping, parking, and shuttle passes are sold separately, and VIP, shuttle, and camping packages can push a total past $1,000.
Bonnaroo, Electric Forest, and the rest of camping season
I could not find official 2027 on-sale details for these two yet. Bonnaroo has sold tickets in January in recent years and has offered payment plans, so signing up for the festival’s newsletter and checking its official site is the move. For Electric Forest, watch the festival’s official channels and set up your ticketing account before sales open.
The pattern worth planning around at any camping fest: the ticket is only part of the bill. Car passes, tent upgrades, RV spots, and locker rentals add up fast, so price the whole weekend before you compare festivals.
Payment plans, resale, and the wait-and-see gamble
Payment plans can lock in the price you pay, but miss a payment and you can lose the ticket and the money you already put in. Read the fine print. Use auto-pay on a card you actually check.
Resale is a different game. Official resale platforms usually add buyer protection. Third-party marketplaces have inventory but fees vary, and there’s no guarantee a ticket transfers cleanly. Whatever you use, check the final total at checkout before you commit.
The final-weeks gamble: sometimes people sell under face because their trip fell through. Sometimes the last-minute market runs far above face because the lineup got hyped. You can’t predict which. If you’re going to gamble, gamble with money you can lose.
Red flags to run from: DMs offering “hard tickets” without a platform, Venmo-only sellers, and screenshots of “confirmation emails” instead of an actual ticket transfer through the official app.
Once you’ve got the ticket, don’t blow the budget on the fest
Real talk: the ticket is only part of your total trip cost. Airbnb and hotels climb the closer you get to the date, so book lodging when you book the ticket, not after.
Gear-wise, keep it simple. The stuff that actually gets used every fest: a hydration pack, a fanny pack, sunscreen, sunglasses that don’t cost enough to cry over losing. The Sojourner Hydration Pack plus a small fanny for phone, cash, and lip balm covers you for basically any festival, camping or not. One purchase, done, and you’re not rebuying a cheap CamelBak knockoff every May.
The rest (LED masks, novelty totems, fifteen outfit changes) is fun-money territory. Fun money spends best when you’re not stressed about the ticket price.
Ticket timing isn’t the sexy part of festival planning. But it’s the difference between paying launch price and paying the later-tier price for the same weekend. Buy early, use the payment plan if you need to, and put what you saved toward the flight (or the fit).
See you in the crowd.
Maya, Sojourner Festival Editor
