1. Plan out to see the movies you want to see.
I believe everyone gets two free express passes a day. These guys are very important as you don’t want to waste your entire time at the fest in lines. Express passes let you show up like 30 minutes before showtime and you get seated first. Catch is, you have to wake up early to get these. Many in-demand movies sell out of the express passes at 9:30-10amish. For instance, on Sunday when I went Trainwreck was the first one sold out and it was just before 10am. I believe it opens at 9am each day.
2. You don’t need to pay for food, seriously.
There are some many free options, many of them I didn’t see til the Monday I was leaving. McDonalds had a huge space and was pumping out breakfast and burgers. There’s opportunities to get free tacos from a taco truck just if you tweet something. You can get a free grilled cheese if you download an app. You get the chance to hang in the Paypal lounge and eat cookies and burgers nonstop, along with the Samsung lounge that had those along with Micheladas and juice. Even at night, there’s many open bar parties that have appetizers like cake pops and mac and cheese being served. Daily Motion had a bungalow that had all you can eat burgers and beer. You can feast for days.
3. Don’t sleep.
Do you see the pattern above? You’re going non-stop. Waking up early to get the express passes, staying out late to go to the parties, there is no time to sleep. My recommendation is to take an extra day off work once your done at the fest just to catch up on your sleep. That’s what I did and it worked perfectly. Take it from me, it’s worth it to not miss out on anything that this fest offers.
4. Have fun!
Like I said, and kind of keep repeating, there is so much to do and see, but don’t rush yourself! Have fun, explore, meet people, see some amazing movies. Drink, eat. It’ll be worth it. I can almost guarantee that if you follow these easy rules you will have a blast.
