Pemberton Post-Mortem: Wayne Coyne On The Traffic

Photograph by Jody Rogac

Remember how we almost missed our flight to Vancouver but made it in the nick of time? Well, we weren't so lucky with our return trip: Pete and I sat in our car for almost four hours yesterday and still weren't even close to making it there. What is with the traffic up here? Seriously.

We're not the only ones complaining. The mainstream news media in Vancouver has been abuzz with reports about how the main logistical problem with Pemberton was the bumper-to-bumper traffic on the one road you can take from Vancouver to the festival site. Even the performers had trouble getting to Pemberton, with the Flaming Lips, N.E.R.D. and My Morning Jacket getting to the site just before they were scheduled to play.

Leave it to the Lips's Wayne Coyne to describe the experience better than anyone: "They're rebuilding the highway for the 2010 Olympics, and they'd better get working, because it's so backed up," he says. "Every two miles, there seemed to be some weekend-only road crew working out there. Like, they're not the first stringers. I honestly think they're people who were put in jail for smoking crystal meth, and they're out on the weekend but they have to be road crew to pay back their debt to society."

Ultimately, though, the Lips found their way to the road crew boss to get help. "They took everybody to task and said, 'Hey, let's help the Flaming Lips get to the festival on time.'" Whoever you are, you awesome Canadian road worker, we thank you. Meanwhile, I'm stranded in Vancouver and heading straight to Chicago tonight for Lollapalooza, which begins on Friday. Stay tuned for a preview of what we'll be seeing there, plus more post-Pemberton low-down. -- JENNY ELISCU