• Coachella attendees told Business Insider they've been waiting up to 12 hours to get into the campgrounds on Thursday.
• Festivalgoers said the process hadn't taken more than two hours in previous years.
• Sources told BI that people had to pee on the road, ran out of gas, and have yet to hear from Coachella officials.

Coachella 2025 is off to a slow start.

Attendees of the festival, which takes place every April in Indio, California, told Business Insider they'd spent up to 12 hours waiting to get into the campsite on Thursday — and some still haven't made it in.

"I made a joke earlier that I didn't know Fyre Festival tickets were included in admission this year, but that's honestly how I feel," Adam Roberts told BI while waiting in his car. "I feel duped."

Festivalgoers, who paid at least $800 each to attend, said they hadn't heard any news on the delays despite receiving updates in the official app and Instagram promoting partnerships with Amex and Nobu.

Representatives for Coachella didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

'I've never seen lines this long'

BI spoke to several seasoned Coachella veterans who have repeatedly camped at the music festival. None said they had seen anything like what they experienced on Thursday morning.

Hailey Maxwell was heading to her fifth Coachella when she arrived in Indio around 3 a.m. PT. While the official website states that camping opens at 9 a.m. on the Thursday before the festival — which runs from Friday to Monday — Maxwell said that typically hasn't been the case in the past.

"They usually open the gates around 3:15 to 3:30 a.m. every year, which is why people wait around the area," Maxwell said. "We're usually at the campsite before sunrise. I'm not even to the security checkpoint yet."

Maxwell had been in line for nine hours when she called BI from her car around 12:30 p.m. PT.

"The directions were the same they had on the website in past years, but this time, they're directing people a different way," she said. "There was no traffic control, so nobody knew where they were going. It took us four hours just to travel half a mile."

Oliver and Kayla Standring, who arrived in line at 8 a.m. PT, told BI they instantly knew it would be bad.

"I've camped another four times at Coachella, and usually it's a pretty smooth process," Oliver Standring said, adding that it's taken "two hours max" in years past.

A lack of toilets and food

Festivalgoers told BI that one of the biggest issues was the lack of restroom access while they waited.

"It's the middle of the desert; there isn't a bush to hide behind," Kayla Standring said. "I had to open both of the car doors to block myself, then the girls in the car behind us saw, and they started doing that. I started a revolution for the women."

"People are peeing in cups," said Roberts, who arrived around 4:30 a.m. PT. "It's been eight hours; people gotta do what they gotta do."

Many attendees said they'd stopped drinking water so they wouldn't have to keep peeing on the side of the road. But that means getting more dehydrated in the desert heat.

"It's already really hot outside," Maxwell said. "My car is air-conditioned, but if it weren't, I would be dying. I know people's cars are overheating, and some people have already run out of gas."

Kayla Standring said she saw people walk a mile to the closest Rite Aid to get supplies while Zoe Bush and her friends used DoorDash to deliver food to their car.

"I have gone five years now and have never had it be even remotely bad. It's always smooth sailing," Bush told BI. "But our group drove eight hours from the Bay Area and are currently running on two hours of sleep."

Zero communication

When Kayla Standring asked a security guard what was happening, she said he told her to "download the Coachella app" to find out. However, every festivalgoer who spoke to BI said they hadn't received any communication from Coachella staff and that there was also a lack of signs or traffic control on the ground.

Attendees have flooded one of Coachella's most recent Instagram posts — promoting a Nobu omakase experience — to demand answers. They have also tried to take matters into their own hands, whether seeking solutions via Reddit boards or contacting city officials.

"People in my group were calling the police and letting them know what is happening because, at this point, it's a health hazard," Maxwell said. "So the Nobu thing felt really out of pocket to post and not at all address what's happening."

"I've done many music festivals. People understand that sometimes things happen, but no communication is what makes it frustrating," Roberts said.

Mixed feelings

As attendees prepare for the three-day festival, the start of this year's Coachella experience has left some feeling defeated while others are trying to keep up their morale.

Kelly Jensen, who was stuck in line from 2 a.m. to 2 p.m., finally made it to the campground, but she said the ordeal was "literal hell."

"It was truly the worst experience ever and also super disappointing because of how much money we spent to be at an event that we really loved," Jensen, who has been to Coachella four times, told BI. "We finally got in, but no one has energy to start setting up camp."

"Given this experience, I would never camp again — and camping is a big part of these experiences," Roberts said. "I'm sure once we get there, things will be better, but this is absolutely not the way to start the event."

The Department of Homeland Security offered a brief two-page memo as its evidence in the case against Columbia University alumnus Mahmoud Khalil ahead of Friday's hearing that will likely decide if the detained legal permanent resident is deported from the U.S.

The big picture: The memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio leaned heavily on the U.S.' right to remove noncitizens whose presence in the country would "compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest."

• The memo obtained by Axios does not allege any criminal conduct by Khalil and he has not been charged with any crime.
• At the time of Khalil's arrest, ICE informed him that his student visa was revoked, and upon learning he was a legal resident, they revoked his green card instead, his attorney told Axios after his arrest.

Driving the news: In the memo, Rubio wrote that allowing Khalil to remain in the country would "undermine U.S. policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States."

• Khalil could be expelled for his participation and roles in "antisemitic protests and disruptive activities," Rubio's letter states.
• The memo echoes similar arguments the government has made in other legal filings for the case. They've also said Khalil had failed to disclose a job with the British Embassy in Lebanon and his membership with a United Nations agency helping Palestinian refugees on his green card application.

Several Trump administration officials have made allegations regarding Khalil's behavior while at Columbia, but not provided any evidence for the claims.

• A White House official said that the Department of Homeland Security had been investigating Khalil prior to his arrest and found he was actively, but not materially, supporting Hamas.
• White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said last month that Khalil had "harassed Jewish-American students and made them feel unsafe on their own college campus" and "distributed pro-Hamas propaganda, flyers with the logo of Hamas."

The other side: Khalil's attorneys argue that the government has provided no analysis or evidence that show their client is a threat to national security.

• "Whether the government can act in violation of the Constitution to deport someone is front and center, and our position is that it cannot," Khalil's attorney, Marc Van Der Hout, said during a press briefing Thursday.
• His legal team said they plan to contest the evidence provided by the government and to ask to depose Rubio.
• Khalil is currently being held in Louisiana and his lawyers are seeking his immediate release, arguing his detention is in violation of the First Amendment.

Go deeper: DOJ alleges key omissions on Mahmoud Khalil's green card application

• TikTok is letting go of some US staff on its e-commerce team, five employees told BI.
• The cuts are hitting its governance and experience team, which handles Shop marketplace safety.
• TikTok made cuts to its global trust and safety team earlier this year.

TikTok is letting go of some US e-commerce staff today as part of a restructuring of its governance and experience team, five employees at the company told Business Insider.

E-commerce governance and experience, called GNE for short, is a global team that handles marketplace safety for users, sellers, and creators within TikTok Shop. The group manages tasks like seller compliance, monitoring product listings, and protecting intellectual property.

Business Insider wasn't able to immediately learn the scale of the job cuts.

A TikTok spokesperson declined to comment.

TikTok's broader US e-commerce team has been under pressure from global leadership this year after failing to meet performance expectations in 2024. The organization's top executive, Bob Kang, called out the team during a company all-hands meeting in February, BI previously reported. Some employees in the group received low scores during annual performance reviews in March, leading to performance-improvement plans and, in some cases, exits with severance.

This month's layoffs follow a February round of cuts to TikTok's global trust and safety team, which Reuters first reported. This group handles tasks like content moderation on a broader set of user videos that don't necessarily involve shopping.

The job cuts arrive at a moment of flux for TikTok as it reckons with a 2024 law that required its owner ByteDance to divest from its US app. After ByteDance failed to comply, TikTok briefly shut off in the country. President Donald Trump has since directed his attorney general not to enforce the law.

Trump said this week the company was close to reaching a deal to address the divestment requirements, but it fell apart after the US levied new tariffs on China. The Chinese government, like the Trump administration, would need to approve the deal. TikTok may become a bargaining chip amid broader trade negotiations.

A ByteDance spokesperson told BI on Friday that it was in discussions with the US government regarding a potential solution for TikTok in the US, but an agreement had not been executed, and any agreement would be subject to approval under Chinese law.

Six people, including three children, died after a helicopter crashed in the Hudson River, between New York and New Jersey, on Thursday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said.

Details: The bodies have been removed from the river, Adams said during a press briefing Thursday evening.

• The crash was reported about 3pm, per the New York City Fire Department.
• The Bell 206 helicopter was submerged in the Hudson as of 4:30pm Thursday ET, a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) statement said.

Zoom in: The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the incident.

• The New York City Fire Department said its units were responding, with land marine units performing rescue operations.
• The fire department was assisting first responders closer to the New Jersey side of the river, per New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Zoom out: This is the latest air crash in a year with aviation anxiety due to several collisions, though flying remains the safest way to travel.

• A fatal helicopter-plane crash in January prompted the FAA to permanently halt non-essential helicopter operations last month near Reagan National Airport outside of Washington, D.C.
• At least 32 people died in NYC helicopter accidents from 1977 to 2019, per an AP analysis.
• In 2018, five people drowned after a charter helicopter crashed into the East River. The pilot survived.

Go deeper: FAA closes helicopter route near D.C. airport after fatal crash