Everyone who’s attended a music festival in the past five years knows that once you get that wristband on, there’s little to no chance you’re getting it off intact. And yet that still seems to be news to some anxious New Yorkers who, upon receiving their Governors Ball wristbands in the mail, snapped them right on their wrists as part of some sort of status ploy, even though the festival is about a month away. As you can imagine, the clueless attendees haven’t been too happy to realize that they’re wristband-bound for the next 30-odd days:

@GovBallNYC i get excited easily and have very sensitive wrists. how can we fix this? pic.twitter.com/f0AMd18kfB — annabelle (@annabellehanflg) May 3, 2016 @ anyone going to gov ball DO NOT GET EXCITED AND PUT ON YOUR WRISTBAND EARLY IT WILL NOT COME OFF NO MATTER HOW HARD YOU TRY/CRY — annabelle (@annabellehanflg) May 3, 2016



@GovBallNYC I accidently pulled the wristband too tight and it won’t go over my wrist, what should I do? — Caroline Nguyen (@carolinenguyen0) April 29, 2016


To their credit, the nice people at Governors Ball have made a compromise for all those dummies already sporting too-tight and soon to be too-dirty bands: Those people who want to get out of their fabric prisons can simply cut the bands off and present them—along with a $20 idiot tax—at will call on the day of the fest and receive a new one on site.

@GovBallNYC you guys should really put a warning on those wristbands — c (@catebtw) May 4, 2016

[via Atlas Obscura]