The time has come to start daydreaming about your 2018 VIP music festival wishlist. With so many incredible events dotted around the world, it pays to be strategic. You could try to tick off a few or go all-in on experiencing one in real style.

If you’re opting for the all-in option, you’ll find a select cast of festivals committed to the VIP punter. Whether it’s private golf carts for zipping between stages or your own tour bus to share with friends, the extra money can secure some serious perks.

Perhaps unsurprisingly you’ll find the flashiest VIP packages at festivals in the US, with established giants like Coachella and Lollapalooza getting it down to a fine art. Here are six of the best VIP music festival experiences, from the glaciers of Iceland to the Nevada desert.

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Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival

Tennessee’s world-famous Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival goes all out on its lineups. While it’s too early to know who’s playing in 2018, the 2017 edition featured such mega-stars as U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Weeknd and Chance The Rapper. Sounds like a good time? Well, it’s a whole lot better if you Roll Like A Rockstar.

The highest-tier in Bonnaroo’s numerous VIP and platinum options requires some serious cash. (Reports put the price tag at over $30,000 USD.) You and up to eight friends get a private, fully-stocked tour bus away from the hoi polloi, plus private areas to watch the bands and a 24-hour concierge on call. It’s so VIP, you have to email the festival for a price quote.

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Photo: Governors Ball/Facebook

Governors Ball Music Festival

If you’re planning a holiday to New York in 2018, you could do a lot worse than timing it for the weekend of June 1-3. That’s when the city’s stalwart multi-genre festival Governors Ball takes over Randall’s Island with a TBA cast of on-point acts. (2017’s big-hitters included Tool, Lorde, Flume and Phoenix.)

Governors Ball offers enticing VIP tiers and, for the punter who’s really not messing around, platinum tickets. The platinum option lets you “experience the festival as if you were an artist”, with viewing areas actually onstage with the acts, a front of house platform dead centre at each stage and fast lanes for easy access around the festival. Upping the exclusivity, there’s only ever 100 of these platinum tickets for sale.

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Secret Solstice, Iceland

In 2015, Iceland’s Secret Solstice festival pulled off a successful publicity stunt by announcing The World’s Most Expensive Festival Pass. Priced at a ludicrous $200,000, the offering included first-class flights for two from anywhere in the world, a private villa for five nights, a personal chef and many more extravagances. The next year they kept the (surely tongue in cheek) tradition going with an even sillier $1 million package.

Headline-baiting stunts aside, Secret Solstice has a genuinely great VIP ticket that won’t put you in lifelong debt. The festival, which coincides with the summer solstice (meaning it never gets dark), is that much breezier to navigate as a VIP. If you really want to ball out in 2018, consider attending the festival’s intimate parties inside a lava tunnel and a glacier cave. Yes, those are both real.

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Lollapalooza

Lollapalooza now runs in six countries, but its original home is Chicago. The flagship weekender is back in the Windy City’s Grant Park from August 2-5, 2018, no doubt with a blockbuster lineup in place. Founder Perry Farrell and co. always pull off showy bookings, with Chance The Rapper the hometown hero in 2017 alongside The Killers, Muse and Arcade Fire.

Lolla’s step-up from VIP is called Platinum, carrying a cool $4200 USD price tag in 2018. For that small fortune, you get lounges with prime views of the four main stages, private bars, catered lunch and dinner, mini-spa treatments, on-site golf cart transportation and a whole lot more to make you very, very smug.

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Coachella, USA

Coachella in Indio, California is one of the world’s best-run festivals, so you certainly don’t need VIP passes to have an incredible time. That said, the festival’s Safari Tent package is a splurge worth considering. (Given how expensive hotels in the area are around Coachella week, it could even be cost-effective.)

The Safari tents enjoy a secluded area of the festival site, with a private check-in, onsite concierge and access to VIP viewing areas. Coachella is a desert festival, so you’ll be glad to learn the tents have air conditioning, private bathrooms and showers. The big risk? Never wanting to leave your air-conditioned cocoon to, you know, see some bands.

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Electric Daisy Carnival

Electric Daisy Carnival is one of those festivals that can’t really be captured by photos. Taking over Las Vegas Motor Speedway for three nights each June, it’s an all-out barrage on the senses, with state-of-the-art staging, roving performers, theatrical light shows and a who’s who of dance music talent. All that stimulation can be exhausting (the festival runs from dusk to dawn), so VIP makes a big difference.

EDC’s 2018 VIP package includes a lot of perks you want during a long night in the desert. Those include raised viewing decks from which to admire those stages, a VIP Ferris Wheel for superior Instagram opportunities, special chill zones and a complimentary breakfast from 4am for your early morning hunger pangs. This being Vegas, you can also have your wedding at EDC.

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(Lead image: Governors Ball/Facebook)

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Ready to live the VIP life? Mastercard Australia has partnered with Westpac to bring you a VIP music experience that not even money can buy. Go to facebook.com/mastercardau to tell us your rider request for a chance to win an exclusive VIP experience at Curve Ball 2018. You must be a Westpac Debit Mastercard holder to win. Eligibility criteria and T&Cs apply.