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This was my first and last 'Roo. Looks like I picked the wrong year to start.
Not gonna bitch, but have to ask, "What was up with the traffic situation?"
We arrived at exit 111 at noon. It was closed (by who, why?) and were sent down to exit 127, turned around and sent back to... Exit 111, 11 hours later.
Anyone know what happened and are the organizers really that unprepared for this amount of traffic.
Sigh, wish you all well for the future 'Roos, I won't be there. Any insite would be great.
This was my first and last 'Roo. Looks like I picked the wrong year to start.
Not gonna bitch, but have to ask, "What was up with the traffic situation?"
We arrived at exit 111 at noon. It was closed (by who, why?) and were sent down to exit 127, turned around and sent back to... Exit 111, 11 hours later.
Anyone know what happened and are the organizers really that unprepared for this amount of traffic.
Sigh, wish you all well for the future 'Roos, I won't be there. Any insite would be great.
It was worse than any other I have attended since 2006. It took us 4+ hours to get to Bonnaroo from Nashville.......I usually am in within 2 hours. Not sure what they changed this year but they screwed up a whole lot of stuff imo.
Post by nodepression on Jun 23, 2010 21:24:54 GMT -5
The fact that they haven't figured out the traffic situation and only had one exit open is really idiotic at this point. Next year is the 10th year, if they don't have it down cold at this point, something is seriously wrong with them.
It was the worst year for me as well. The last time I had any wait was in 04 so I was not mentally prepared for it this year, especially after sixteen hours on the road solo!
The mud was definitely a big part of it. There also seemed to be a bit of general hostility from the police this year, randomly closing ramps on or off 24, rerouting traffic ten miles away, etc. Again, nothing I'd ever experienced at Bonnaroo.
I'm sorry that the traffic has put such a pall on the event. For me, though that aspect sucked, it's all good once you are there.
Yeah I really think they should open at least one more tollbooth and direct traffic equally between the different entrances.
I don't know about all of the logistics of the exits from the 24, but maybe if they start only letting people off at exit # to go wait in tollbooth A. Then after an hour or two they stop directing people to that exit and start only letting people off at exit ## and directing them to tollbooth B. And so on and so on.
I don't know, but from the looks of it the two entrances are on opposite ends of the farm. There has to be a more efficient way of getting people in.
And on the issue of getting your car in. The people in charge of parking the cars, I know most of them are volunteers, but, GET A CLUE!!!!
Even in guest camping the kids parking people had no idea what they were doing. I had to get out of our car and reposition like 10-12 cars. It's not that hard to line cars up in a straight line.
I would appreciate some kind of infrastructure along the way, even some portapotties here and there. I mean, they can erect road signs that say "bonnaroo traffic use shoulder". Not only is it crazy to sit in line for 7-8 hours but to do so with no access to bathroom facilities is inexcusable. Running into the cornfield would not have worked for me.
Yeah it was a nightmare. Every year I've left the Walmart around 430am and gotten onto the farm in 2 hours or less. I was totally not expecting to be turned around and sent back the other way then put in that line from hell. Took me 6 1/2 hours to get in.
At one point I think we went an entire hour without moving. I just couldn't understand that. Even if it was a single line straight in with no lanes, how could the line possibly creap that slow.
Obviously somewhere up ahead they were letting people in front of us? I don't know. I just know I bout lost my freakin mind in that car alone.
Post by terrapin8654 on Jun 24, 2010 0:16:58 GMT -5
the only problems with traffic was on wednesday night/thursday morning, right? from what i was told, it was the mud. people were coming in and getting stuck in the mud and they had to fix it.
i drove in on thursday night and had NO wait at all. drove straight to the ticket booth. left out on friday about 11:00am to meet friends and lead them to our camp. the wait was less than 15 minutes.
Post by questionablesanity on Jun 24, 2010 7:51:48 GMT -5
04-not sure what time we got in line but we waited 7 hours, exit 112 09-in line on exit 127 around 10-1030am Thursday. Waited 5 hours 10-in line Wednesday night aroudn midnight. Waited 3 1/2 hours or so.
It was pretty muddy Wednesday. We camped in access so we didn't see anyone get stuck in the mud but my awd Subaru was slipping around.
Roo traffic is just about the only bad thing about Bonnaroo. I just expect to wait 5-7 hours.
A Thieve's Parade 2/24 Conspirator 2/26 Kevin Smith 3/11 Keller 3/17 Papadosio 3/18 JJ Grey 3/25 Bela Fleck/Edgar Meyer 3/26 Toubab Krewe 3/27 O'Death 4/11 Budos Band 4/22 EOTO 4/28 Summer Camp 5/6-29 All Good
Post by ellisintransit on Jun 24, 2010 8:49:13 GMT -5
I came in through back roads from Murfreesboro so we could hit up the Bushy Branch entrance at 111 on Thursday morning at about 10:00 am. The cop there said they were having mud problems and were having to pull cars IN through the turnstiles. We were then directed onto the interstate to get in the 20 mile line.
I waited in that line last year for 10 hours, and will never do it again. So instead we bypassed the entire interstate line, got off at Monteagle, turned around and took more backroads back around to the 111 entrance. (Thank god for GPS.) By the time we got back they were letting cars in on Bushy Branch. We waited less than 45 minutes from the time we got in the line (which was just the other side of the overpass at 111) until we were parked.
When we saw the line on the interstate, I decided then and there that I would rather go back home than sit in a 10 hour line, and I know most people don't have that option since you came from across the country, but I live 30 minutes away. I figured if we couldn't get in I would just park elsewhere and walk in to see the shows I wanted to see Thursday night and then drive back the next day to camp. Fortunately it did not come to that, and we got a kick ass tent only spot.
Bonnaroo needs to fix this s.h.i.t. There is no excuse. And next thing you know there will be a death in the line waiting to get in, before the festival even starts. I'm willing to wait a few hours; that doesn't seem too unreasonable. But people are driving 15+ hours to get here and then have to wait another 9 or 10 in line. For some people, it seems the line is worse than the lines in 02 and 03, which was enough to keep even this local away for the first 2 years. Also, the fact that we got in so quickly shows there is no coordination on the part of the parking people.
Or maybe it's a smart business move because I will go VIP from now on, strictly so I don't have to worry about a line getting in. So they get more money from me due to their incompetence.
I was told the back entrance flooded out and they had to funnel everyone thru the front entrance. I don't want to see the Farm paved. But, they could at least pave the entrances and up thru the tollbooths to make sure this doesnt happen again. See you next year!
Then that brings up the question, why are there only two entrances into a 700 acre farm?
There are three, the one off the interstate, the one off of 111, and the back entrance by roofans house. The only one that will get you up close is the interstate entrance though.
Yes but Bushy Branch runs through the campgrounds there are tollbooths on the interstate side, and on the other side by roofans house. However if you go from roofans house you will be put in bfe. I did that last year and only had a 15 minute wait, but a longer car wait to be closer all weekend is worth it to me.
rric528 - Sorry, I feel really bad for you. Its a shame they haven't found some kind of a solution.
That stinks if the problem was mud. I don't know how they could have EVER seen that coming... rain and dirt mixing to make mud is completely unpredictable.
Post by HighlySuspicious on Jun 24, 2010 12:18:59 GMT -5
Wow, I feel bad for you that you actually turned around and waited in that.
We were coming east on 24 and got excited when we saw the bonnaroo entrance on the other side of the highway. We went about 5 more miles, the exits were blocked by this time (about 8am) when the bike cops came by telling bonyroo traffic to get over to the shoulder. At that point we waited about 2 and a half hours to travel about 3 miles. At that point, THE SHOULDER ENDED AND WE GOT RIGHT BACK ON THE HIGHWAY. If it weren't for the cops, we would have got to that point in less than 5 minutes!!! Then, we saw people lined up again when the shoulder resumed. We only waited about half an hour this time when we realized that in likelihood we were just going to be turned around and put in the line going the other way.
So the solution was to get off the shoulder, get to the next exit, and ask for back road directions at a gas station. Luckily, this was my third roo and I knew there were other ways to get to manchester taking the roads behind the blocked exits.
The guy at the gas station at 127 was great and he took us around to the bride on exit 111 or 113, can't remember. Anyway, the back road we took was 55 and it was about an hour drive from 127 but much much much better than waiting on the highway. When we got to 111 we only waited in line for like half an hour. The most killer part was that as soon as we crossed the bridge and got in line, the police opened back up that exit. If we had arrived at that point 5 hours earlier, we would had a total 30 minute wait to get into roo with probablyt he best camping spot I've had yet.
THERE HAS TO BE A BETTER WAY!!!!
(btw i would have HAD to cut people in line if we had chosen to come back on I24W. There were just too many people doing it and you could see it wouldn't be too ahrd to get 4 or 5 miles out with cars stopping and what not. )
I went in on Wednesday night with an RV- got in line around 730ish on the bushy branch road exit and waited about an hour and a half to get in. At one point the line wasn't moving at all but then they would let in a bunch of cars at once. Turned out there was a cop only letting groups of cars in so as to not clog the intersection right by the winery. Either way once we got going in we get up to the first entrance and they told us to keep driving because the mud was preventing them from parking RV's at the time. So we continued down and were directed in a second entrance where we had to pull to the side of the road with all the other RV's while they figured out where they were going to park us. About a half hour later a supervisor came through and told the attendents they had to get us parked no matter what because traffic was starting to heavily back up. So the attendents pretty much told everyone in RV's to just go into the camping grounds as fast as we could so we didnt get stuck in mud. Needless to say we ended up getting parked in Biff Tannen/Marty Mcfly right along the road- less than a 5 minute walk to pod 3 and a 10 minute walk to centeroo and directly across from the porto's and the trash/recycling bins next to us. Couldn't have asked for a better spot. This was our first roo and we'll definitely be back again
Post by easymorningrebel on Jun 24, 2010 13:09:30 GMT -5
at least we all found something to agree on!! worst wait that I can remember this year, from what people have said, must have been cause of the flooding...hope they figure this out for next year.
Really bummed that 'Roo did not work out for me. I wanted it to become an annual thing for me, but I seriously think I would have a brain hemmorage if I went again and had to sit in that traffic once again.
I missed 3 bands I "really" wanted to see on Thurs. (Missed all of Thurs, really), and was so wiped that I just could not get into it. Bad start and just could not pull the weekend out,no matter how hard I tried.
Ahh well, I'll find a diffrent happy place next time. Hope things go better next year for those sticking with it.
Really bummed that 'Roo did not work out for me. I wanted it to become an annual thing for me, but I seriously think I would have a brain hemmorage if I went again and had to sit in that traffic once again.
I missed 3 bands I "really" wanted to see on Thurs. (Missed all of Thurs, really), and was so wiped that I just could not get into it. Bad start and just could not pull the weekend out,no matter how hard I tried.
Ahh well, I'll find a diffrent happy place next time. Hope things go better next year for those sticking with it.
Just shell out for VIP or go in Wed night if it is too much for you man.
Yea, VIPs meet at a secret spot and get to drive right in. We waited in line 1:30 min. There are some pretty good short cuts that avoid all the hassles
VIP Experience: 06- Rolled up in an RV to Holiday Inn around 3, got in line and were in and parked in about an hour. 07- Got to Holiday Inn early. Stood in line 2 hours after the noon opening, another 2 hours in line. Got in later than we did in 06 09- Got to Manchester around 2. Went to the high school, no line. Rolled straight in, no line 10- Got to Manchester around 1. Went straight in. Waited maybe 10 minutes.
Post by omgitsbonnaroo on Jun 24, 2010 17:05:33 GMT -5
ive been lucky...ive honestly never waited more than 2 hours...this year got in weds night and we found some random back road and cut the entire line! it was crazy....the gps led us this way...when we got up there, the guy said "where are you guys going." we were like "uhhh, bonnaroo." it was hilarious.
it seems to be pretty random as well for the general admission... the odds are if you had an 11 hour wait then law of averages seems to workout. Im due fo a shitty one since my last three have been 90 minutes 7 hours and 45 minutes...