Post by feelingofwonder on Sept 3, 2013 10:42:03 GMT -5
for those not on fb, new article from lynchburg, va.
www.roanoke.com/news/2197580-12/workers-put-finishing-touches-on-lockn-festival-site.html
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By Katherine Lacaze | The (Lynchburg) News & Advance
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Two days before the start of the inaugural Lockn’ Festival in Nelson County, the event site already has undergone a transformation as event organizers work to fulfill the vision of the festival’s founders.
“We’re about halfway through the work,” Dave Frey, co-founder of Lockn’, said Monday afternoon.
Today and Wednesday, crews will put the finishing touches on the event site that has been carved out of the 5,000-acre Oak Ridge Estate in Arrington. The four-day music festival starts Thursday and is expected to draw at least 25,000 people.
“We need this to be as great as it can be,” Frey said.
Across the 650 acres that will be used for the festival are rows of white tents, light towers, wire fencing, trash cans and dozens of portable toilets. Signs have been posted to direct people toward the correct parking and camping areas. The makeshift parking lots have been striped to delineate spots.
On Monday, about 150 paid staff members rushed around the site, pitching tents, working on the stage and more. Staff members have been in the habit of working 16- to 18-hour workdays during the past week, Frey said, a reality that he predicted will continue until Thursday.
The final touches will include an inspection by the Nelson County Buildings Inspections office scheduled for today, along with furnishing tents and connecting electricity.
As of about a week ago, more than 17,500 tickets had been sold. Media relations coordinator Olivia Branch said Monday that updated figures would not be released but that organizers still anticipate a crowd of at least 25,000.
Frey said with the large number of people expected, traffic during the festival seems to be the main issue on people’s minds, especially with the access point for Oak Ridge on U.S. 29.
Organizers have worked with the Virginia Department of Transportation to craft a plan they hope will prevent traffic from backing up.
“We’re continuing to work on the details with the festival organizers and the state police, but everyone’s been very cooperative,” said Paula Jones, communications manager for the VDOT Lynchburg district.
Nelson County Emergency Services Coordinator Jaime Miller said more dispatchers are scheduled to work during the festival, and that a “tractor-trailer load” of extra medical supplies has been brought in.
The Wintergreen Rescue Squad, which got the contract to handle emergency services for the event, is working with personnel both from other local agencies, as well as those from surrounding areas including Lynchburg, Amherst, Waynesboro and August County.
Curtis Sheets, chief of the Wintergreen Fire Department and Rescue Squad, said the festival founders are paying a fee for the use of the ambulances, and several agencies will provide trucks.
The festival also is bringing in its own security force, Frey said.
www.roanoke.com/news/2197580-12/workers-put-finishing-touches-on-lockn-festival-site.html
by
By Katherine Lacaze | The (Lynchburg) News & Advance
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Two days before the start of the inaugural Lockn’ Festival in Nelson County, the event site already has undergone a transformation as event organizers work to fulfill the vision of the festival’s founders.
“We’re about halfway through the work,” Dave Frey, co-founder of Lockn’, said Monday afternoon.
Today and Wednesday, crews will put the finishing touches on the event site that has been carved out of the 5,000-acre Oak Ridge Estate in Arrington. The four-day music festival starts Thursday and is expected to draw at least 25,000 people.
“We need this to be as great as it can be,” Frey said.
Across the 650 acres that will be used for the festival are rows of white tents, light towers, wire fencing, trash cans and dozens of portable toilets. Signs have been posted to direct people toward the correct parking and camping areas. The makeshift parking lots have been striped to delineate spots.
On Monday, about 150 paid staff members rushed around the site, pitching tents, working on the stage and more. Staff members have been in the habit of working 16- to 18-hour workdays during the past week, Frey said, a reality that he predicted will continue until Thursday.
The final touches will include an inspection by the Nelson County Buildings Inspections office scheduled for today, along with furnishing tents and connecting electricity.
As of about a week ago, more than 17,500 tickets had been sold. Media relations coordinator Olivia Branch said Monday that updated figures would not be released but that organizers still anticipate a crowd of at least 25,000.
Frey said with the large number of people expected, traffic during the festival seems to be the main issue on people’s minds, especially with the access point for Oak Ridge on U.S. 29.
Organizers have worked with the Virginia Department of Transportation to craft a plan they hope will prevent traffic from backing up.
“We’re continuing to work on the details with the festival organizers and the state police, but everyone’s been very cooperative,” said Paula Jones, communications manager for the VDOT Lynchburg district.
Nelson County Emergency Services Coordinator Jaime Miller said more dispatchers are scheduled to work during the festival, and that a “tractor-trailer load” of extra medical supplies has been brought in.
The Wintergreen Rescue Squad, which got the contract to handle emergency services for the event, is working with personnel both from other local agencies, as well as those from surrounding areas including Lynchburg, Amherst, Waynesboro and August County.
Curtis Sheets, chief of the Wintergreen Fire Department and Rescue Squad, said the festival founders are paying a fee for the use of the ambulances, and several agencies will provide trucks.
The festival also is bringing in its own security force, Frey said.