Thor Christensen

Outdoor music festivals are synonymous with sunburn, rancid porta-potties and hamburgers that taste like hockey pucks.

But that's just the commoners' experience. Well-off fest-goers are increasingly buying V.I.P packages that let them rock out in comfort.

This weekend, as many as 1,500 people at the Austin City Limits Festival will pay $850 for access to a shady grove with air-conditioned bathrooms, unlimited drinks, catered meals and even spa treatments.

"There's a demand for amenities," says Autumn Rich, who runs V.I.P. programs for ACL and Lollapalooza. "People say 'We want to come, but we're older and we can't be in the sun all day. We want the niceties.' "

"These are fans whose idea of a good time isn't sitting in the dirt," says Gary Bongiovanni, editor of the concert industry magazine Pollstar. "They're looking for a more refined experience, and they'll pay more money for it."

A lot more. At ACL, V.I.P. tickets cost five times as much as regular three-day tickets, which sold for $130-$170. V.I.P. passes also sold for $850 in August at Chicago's Lollapalooza, where 44-year-old Shawn Monty tried out the experience for the first time.

The Austin City Limits music festival, with its shaded VIP section, is a far cry from the mud pits of Woodstock.

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His verdict? "The air-conditioned bathrooms alone were worth it," he says. "But the food was mediocre and they kept running out. I'm not 100 percent sold yet."

For years, creature comforts were rarer than oboes at rock festivals. But as big multi-day fests proliferated, so did V.I.P. sections. ACL has one of the fanciest, with limitless cocktails, an Internet lounge and a team of masseuses ready to work out your kinks.

But V.I.P. sections rub some people the wrong way. In May, singer Shelby Lynne launched into an expletive-laced tirade over the V.I.P. section at Stagecoach, the Indio, Calif., country-rock festival.

"I love playing to empty seats," she was quoted as saying to The (Riverside, Calif.) Press-Enterprise, upset that fans were stuck in the back while most V.I.P.s hadn't yet shown up to their area in front of the stage.

That isn't a problem at most festivals, where V.I.P. seats are set off to the side of the stage. At ACL, the V.I.P. section is totally hidden from the stage.

At Lollapalooza, however, some fans grumbled about prime real estate being taken up by tent-like "cabanas" that sold to corporations for $25,000 and up.

"The cabanas are a great success in Chicago," says Ms. Rich. "But I wouldn't institute cabanas in Austin – it's not really appropriate for the vibe."

Outdoor festivals have courted a communal vibe ever since Woodstock billed itself as "three days of peace, love and music." But thanks to V.I.P. sections, music festivals are now like the rest of the world, with a wealthy minority separated from the less well-off majority.

"Attitudes have changed," says Mr. Bongiovanni. "The hippie-inclined people are in their 50s now and driving BMWs instead of VWs."

Mr. Monty said he saw lots of V.I.P.s who never left the fenced-off area at Lollapalooza and barely paid attention to the music: "They were there more to see and be seen than to experience the festival."

But that's fine with promoters, who turn a huge profit on V.I.P. tickets. If ACL sells out its 1,500-capacity area this weekend, that's $1.2 million dollars it might otherwise not have grossed.

On its Web site, ACL plays up the status-symbol aspect by asking "Are you V.I.P. material?" And if the status-seekers never actually watch the bands, so be it, says Ms. Rich.

"We want to appeal to all types of festivalgoers," she says. "If you want to, you never have to leave the area."

"I suspect we'll be seeing more V.I.P. areas at festivals," says Mr. Bongiovanni. "They're like luxury boxes. The well-heeled people will pay for whatever they want."

Plan your life

Austin City Limits Festival runs Friday through Sunday at Zilker Park in Austin. Acts include Beck, Foo Fighters, Gnarls Barkley, and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss. Three-day V.I.P. tickets are $850. Regular three-day tickets are sold out, but $80 individual tickets are available for Friday and Sunday.