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I'd like to know that as well. I understand that the parking lots got too muddy, but the roads didn't flood. What made it too hard for busses to travel on paved roads?
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And how did it become 15 miles to the nearest road? is it just that large of a festival site? That seems like a lot.
I think this came later, but even the first park and ride lots were 4-5 miles to the site. That may not sound like a lot, but when you're in the middle of nowhere and have no idea which direction your car is in, what do you do? If you look at the Tomorrowworld website, they seem unnecessarily coy about not revealing the exact address of the site, instead asking people to just follow signs. I've lived in Atlanta for 20 years, and I felt completely lost down there. I don't know why they can't publish precise maps of where everything is and how to get there. To me, the biggest problem seemed like it wasn't making the walk...it was getting lost and going to the wrong place.
Maybe half a mile to GA 70 [the nearest road], but that doesn't necessarily mean civilization, i.e., water, shelter, transportation, cell service. Check out the Street View of GA 70 between the site entrances [either of the ones labeled Browns Lake Rd].
In fact, I'm hard-pressed to find amenities of any kind within a 5 mile circle of the event site.
Maybe half a mile to GA 70 [the nearest road], but that doesn't necessarily mean civilization, i.e., water, shelter, transportation, cell service. Check out the Street View of GA 70 between the site entrances [either of the ones labeled Browns Lake Rd].
In fact, I'm hard-pressed to find amenities of any kind within a 5 mile circle of the event site.
Yeah - I mean it's not far from the nearest road, but on foot you would be hard pressed.
I guess my confusion is why would this weather have any bearing on shuttles or uber drivers making it at least to GA 70? it's not like it's a dirt road - that is a state route.
They should see if they can contract that chunk of nearby empty cul-de-sacs for next year - would make great shuttle turnabouts.
I'm very confused as to the transportation stoppage.
So question, which I haven't seemed to have gotten from the newscoverage...why were the transportation options stopped?
Nobody seems to know. We left the festival about a half hour before closing (12:30am). They had corrals for the people that needed to take an off-site shuttle, which was everyone not camping there. One line was to the Uber pickup point (3 miles down the road), another line for the off-site parking (9 miles away at the Renaissance Festival), and then another line for the shuttles to the Airport and Downtown.
We were going to the Uber pickup point, so we got in the line. However, the lines seemed to just stop moving. We were there for about 30-45 minutes when we saw people bailing out of the lines for various reasons. At this point, we just decided we could get to the Uber point faster by walking down the road. So we bailed from the line and walked up to the road. From what I can gather, some of the people who were bailing on the lines were actually just trying to get closer to the buses, which of course didn't help. As we were walking down the road, we probably only saw one or two buses pass us. We got down to the Uber pickup point about an hour later (around 2:00am). The Uber pickup point was still functioning -- Uber cars were driving up to the turnaround point, and there was a line to get in them. So we got in line and were waiting for about 15-20 minutes. Then, people were starting to stream down the road, and they were hailing the Uber cars directly from the road. Of course, this throws the Uber pickup point into chaos since the cars are no longer driving there. At that point, we knew everything had broken down, and we found a comfortable spot to ride it out.
Apparently, one of the event staff announced to the crowd that remained in the shuttle line that shuttles were not going to get them to their destination, and that they should walk down the road to the Uber pickup point to get Uber to where they were going. He promised that if they kept their receipts from Uber, they would receive reimbursement for the cost of Uber to get them either to off-site parking or Airport/Downtown. There's video of him making that announcement here: https://www.facebook.com/jorge.navar...07374657675038
The lack of shuttles really caused the issue. The reasons I heard for them stopping was:
The bus drivers bailed because their shift was over
Buses were getting stuck in the mud at various points along the way, perhaps at the Renn Fest site
Loss of control of the shuttle queue process; people standing in front of buses until they were let on
I still do not know exactly why they stopped, but it was clear from the get go that they did not have enough of them for the suddenly larger crowd that needed them.
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Originally Posted by Tryska
And how did it become 15 miles to the nearest road? is it just that large of a festival site? That seems like a lot.
It was not 15 miles to the nearest road. There were roads around, but all there was in this area were farms and sporadic farm houses. It is very rural, and there were no gas stations, shopping centers, etc. to speak of. As a result, there was no utility to walking anywhere. Some people walked to the closest gas station to catch rides. I couldn't even grab a signal on Google Maps to find a gas station. I suppose a few people actually walked the nine miles to the off-site parking location. All you reasonably could do was wait for the crowd and chaos to subside, and then hope you had enough battery strength to hail a taxi/Uber. We lucked out and Ubers and taxis were driving to the location for hours. When the crowd finally thinned out, we caught an Uber driver on the road at 6:30am.
Last edited by space cadet; 09-29-2015 at 12:26 PM..
Reason: Posted wrong link for the video
Nobody seems to know. We left the festival about a half hour before closing (12:30am). They had corrals for the people that needed to take an off-site shuttle, which was everyone not camping there. One line was to the Uber pickup point (3 miles down the road), another line for the off-site parking (9 miles away at the Renaissance Festival), and then another line for the shuttles to the Airport and Downtown.
We were going to the Uber pickup point, so we got in the line. However, the lines seemed to just stop moving. We were there for about 30-45 minutes when we saw people bailing out of the lines for various reasons. At this point, we just decided we could get to the Uber point faster by walking down the road. So we bailed from the line and walked up to the road. From what I can gather, some of the people who were bailing on the lines were actually just trying to get closer to the buses, which of course didn't help. As we were walking down the road, we probably only saw one or two buses pass us. We got down to the Uber pickup point about an hour later (around 2:00am). The Uber pickup point was still functioning -- Uber cars were driving up to the turnaround point, and there was a line to get in them. So we got in line and were waiting for about 15-20 minutes. Then, people were starting to stream down the road, and they were hailing the Uber cars directly from the road. Of course, this throws the Uber pickup point into chaos since the cars are no longer driving there. At that point, we knew everything had broken down, and we found a comfortable spot to ride it out.
Apparently, one of the event staff announced to the crowd that remained in the shuttle line that shuttles were not going to get them to their destination, and that they should walk down the road to the Uber pickup point to get Uber to where they were going. He promised that if they kept their receipts from Uber, they would receive reimbursement for the cost of Uber to get them either to off-site parking or Airport/Downtown. There's video of him making that announcement here: https://www.facebook.com/tomorrowwor...%3A%22R9%22%7D
The lack of shuttles really caused the issue. The reasons I heard for them stopping was:
The bus drivers bailed because their shift was over
Buses were getting stuck in the mud at various points along the way, perhaps at the Renn Fest site
Loss of control of the shuttle queue process; people standing in front of buses until they were let on
I still do not know exactly why they stopped, but it was clear from the get go that they did not have enough of them for the suddenly larger crowd that needed them.
It was not 15 miles to the nearest road. There were roads around, but all there was in this area were farms and sporadic farm houses. It is very rural, and there were no gas stations, shopping centers, etc. to speak of. As a result, there was no utility to walking anywhere. Some people walked to the closest gas station to catch rides. I couldn't even grab a signal on Google Maps to find a gas station. I suppose a few people actually walked the nine miles to the off-site parking location. All you reasonably could do was wait for the crowd and chaos to subside, and then hope you had enough battery strength to hail a taxi/Uber. We lucked out and Ubers and taxis were driving to the location for hours. When the crowd finally thinned out, we caught an Uber driver on the road at 6:30am.
Right on. Thanks for the info. I agree it seems like ****-poor planning in regards to shuttles. probably combined with people panicking far too easily. I suppose it can get that way when you don't have bars. Next time they should probably keep all vehicular pathways on paved road. That just makes more sense. Did they utilize that empty neighborhood infrastructure at all? (if it is still empty).
Right on. Thanks for the info. I agree it seems like ****-poor planning in regards to shuttles. probably combined with people panicking far too easily. I suppose it can get that way when you don't have bars. Next time they should probably keep all vehicular pathways on paved road. That just makes more sense. Did they utilize that empty neighborhood infrastructure at all? (if it is still empty).
Yeah, my wife mentioned that the crowd for shuttle line probably would have been much more patient and willing to wait if they were playing music and had water/snacks to hand out. With all of those corporate sponsors there, they certainly could have made something like that happen. Instead, we were literally stuck in cattle shoots, not moving and with no information nor confidence that things were going as planned.
The only infrastructure they seemed to use was the pasture lands and highway 70.
Since you are perfect and know how to do everything perfectly I highly recommend you joining the TW committee next year
What are you babbling about? I'm not a doctor, but I can blame a doctor when he botches a surgery. I'm not a house painter, but I know if I ask for red and he paints the house blue, he's wrong.
My entire career has been spent in entertainment production, including some outdoor festivals. It ain't hard to tell when someone has screwed up. Years ago when they did the Dave Matthews concert in Peidmont Park, there were only like 30 porta-potties total in the entire space. One major location had like six. That's ****-poor planning and I don't have to run a business or live perfectly to understand it.
It appears that you're trolling at this point.
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Originally Posted by toll_booth
I know it would take away from the atmosphere of an outdoor concert, but it would be nice if they moved this event to the Georgia Dome/Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Philips Arena, and perhaps Georgia Tech's McCamish Pavilion. (Bobby Dodd stadium might be less desirable because it is outdoors and has a natural grass surface.)
Yeah, you'd lose a massive amount of the atmosphere. It's not even close to the same experience, especially when you have tons of rotating acts. Would be kind of a logistical nightmare to move between all of the locations to see each act you want to see.
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Okay, Centennial could work. IDK about Piedmont, though, especially just one week after Music Midtown. They'd have to shut down 10th Street and perhaps Monroe for a couple of miles just to get all the pedestrians out!
Doesn't Tomorrowworld have a bunch of super-late-night festivities, and music going way late? Well, it appears until only 1:00am (lame), but you can't go that late in the middle of town in an outdoor venue. And I think the endless "boom boom boom boom" might drive people in the area nuts.
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