The way to do Bubba is plan in advance, fly somewhere where there aren't quite as many Parrotheads, stay in a hotel and make it a four-day weekend.
Get lawn tickets for a Thursday show, and you'll be out only a few hundred. Done it many times: best show of his I saw was in Northern Virginia in 2000.
All the action and most of the fun is in the tailgating, anyway.
...oh, and Irvine is a very nice venue. You can squeeze an entire week out of Orange County with the Angels, Disneyland, etc.
My handle is actually a slight tip of the hat to "Tin Cup Chalice".
We have been doing Jiiiiiiiimmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyy for at least 15 yrs now, every year. The only year we missed was the year his Mom was sick and they cancelled Irvine. We went anyway on our own "Where's Jimmy?" tour. rofl
Since we always start our yearly vacation with his concert anywhere besides Nevada, Ariz., or California is really out of the way for us.