The differences I think of are you have to pay careful attention to vehicles on your sides at angles that aren’t real great, and that you may find yourself kittywhompuss and have to pull out and back in. At least once. OTOH, your point about the pull through is well taken, and there isn’t ALWAYS a a car on the left and right.
I’m going to give it a try. I also take the point about avoiding crowds - I’ve been crowd averse for quite a number of years. Besides terrorist attack, I don’t like the feeling of being out of control that you get - just occurred to me that the out of control feeling is probably exactly what the occupiers and anarchists DO like about it. I don’t mind the symphony or the ballgame that much, but the idea of going to an all-day rock concert makes me throw up a little bit in the back of my mouth.
There aren't a lot of rock festivals in America. Leaving out the bar scene, it's mostly 2-5 bands at a theater ranging in size from a few thousand to 50,000 and more. The main rock room at BB Kings would probably go over the NYC limit for people if 200 showed up for a show. Nokia Theater is probably 500-600, and the Nikon Theater in LI holds over 50,000.
The only festival in the US that comes to mind would be ProgPower USA in Georgia. I think it's two days of progressive and power metal bands, with a few scattered things leading up to the two days of big shows. Better though I believe, you don't get the angry crowds that go to more mainstream metal events. Prog and power bands aren't about stuff like that.