This year, Gibson Ranch park in Elverta has been promoting itself as a destination location for large-scale events. Recently the ranch hosted the City of Trees concert, drawing over 9,000 fans for a day of music. Unfortunately it was a day marred by logistical problems from the beginning.
On sponsor radio station 94.7’s web site and on the City of Trees facebook page, music fans complained about a two hour wait to enter the venue and park. There were complaints about water shortages, the lack of lighting in the parking lots, overflowing trash cans, inadequate restroom facilities, and another two hour traffic jam to exit the venue once the show was over.
On October 24th & 25th, Gibson Ranch will host the Monster Energy Aftershock Festival, which features major rock headliners such as Slipknot, Shinedown, Marilyn Manson, Faith No More, Jane’s Addiction, Stone Temple Pilots and local rockers, Deftones. The two day event also offers three nights of camping on-site, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. For the past two years it had been held at Discovery Park, but promoter Danny Hayes says that the event has outgrown that venue.
They expect to draw over 25,000 people to the event per day. Last year the two day event drew over 30,000 for both days.
I spent last Monday morning surveying the park with General Manager Doug Ose talking about what happened with City of Trees, how those problems are going to be avoided with Aftershock, and the future plans for more events at Gibson Ranch.
They’ve made plans to handle over 7,500 vehicles. They have 60 acres on site for parking, and they have leased 400 acres between 16th Street and Kasser Road. After visiting the Toyota Amphitheater in Wheatland for a Dierks Bentley show, Ose’s group consulted with the amphitheater staff on traffic management.
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The “back gate” at the corner of Kasser and Tan Woods will be used for entry, and General Admission parking will be directed down Dyer Lane to the 400 acres. There will be many entry points along Kasser and 16th to direct vehicles to parking quickly. Traffic plans are being sent to concert-goers via email, based on their zip code. It’s expected that most people coming to the show from Placer County will come via Baseline Road to Watt Ave. They will be directed to Dyer Lane. Single lanes of traffic will be broken into many lanes to park at many different locations quickly.
Gibson Ranch is looking to close Elverta Road between Dutch Haven and 28th Streets so that only concert traffic will be using Elverta Road during the event. There will be CHP controlling the intersections at Elverta & 28th and Elverta & Rio Linda. At the time, Ose was unsure of what would happen at the stop signs between the park and Highway 99, but he would like to have them controlled.
Real time, programmable electronic signs will be in place to direct traffic at major intersections.
People will begin arriving on Friday afternoon. for the three nights of camping at the event. Non-campers will begin to arrive around 8:30-9am, with the bulk of the traffic between 10am and the 11am start of the show on Saturday. They expect 3,000 to 4,000 campers to remain on Monday who are expected to trickle out through the morning.
Ose pointed out that promoter “Danny Wimmer Presents” has had experience doing many of these festival-style events all over the country, while Entercom is primarily a radio station management business. While the traffic management, garbage, water, and other issues at City of Trees were the responsibility of the promoter, Ose has taken the initiative and is working closely with DWP to make certain that they will not happen again. “Great concert, great people to work with, but the Uber/Lyft thing caught us by surprise.”
It should also be noted that the promoter has a traffic management person on staff who works with the Rose Parade in Pasadena.
The real problem with traffic exiting City of Trees occurred when organizers underestimated the volume of pedestrian traffic walking out to Elverta Road to catch ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft. That effectively cut exiting traffic volume in half, causing the backlog. With Aftershock, there will be a dedicated pedestrian pathway away from the concert site to a location just off of Elverta Road to meet up with their rides. The pedestrian path will be well lit, as will the parking lots.
In addition, signs will be placed along the side streets on the major streets advising people that there is no access to the ranch from those streets. The pedestrian gate to Dutch Haven will be closed and locked to prevent concert goers from wandering into the neighborhood.
Fencing will be installed to prevent people from gaining access to the horses boarded at the ranch. There will also be security and a mounted patrol to assure no-one will be entering the restricted areas. The promoter’s event staff will be staying at the ranch as well.
The plan is for Gibson Ranch to host twelve to eighteen large events per year. I proposed the idea of a semi-permanent, 10,000-12,000 seat amphitheater style venue at the park. Ose said he’s working toward that, but is having some pushback from the County.
The final plan will be open for viewing and comment on Wednesday, September 9th, 6pm at the Dry Creek Parkway Advisory Committee meeting taking place at Gibson Ranch.
My thoughts: It’s immense. It’s enormous. It’s absolutely huge in scope. We’ve seen Country in the Park and a Day in the Zone at Gibson Ranch before, but make no doubt about it, Aftershock is going to be the biggest event we’ve ever seen in Rio Linda and Elverta.
However, The time I spent with Doug, where we drove around the ranch and he pointed out where mistakes were made and how they are going to be remedied, gave me a lot of confidence that they can pull it off. With plans to host 12-18 events per year, Doug Ose’s group has the most to lose in this situation, and they are working hard to make it successful for the ranch, the promoter, the community, and the attendees.
It’s not going to be perfect. I have no doubt there will be hiccups, but if they are handled well and mitigated appropriately it will be a big win for the community. In 2013, DWP spent about $800,000 to put on the two-day festival at Discovery Park, which grossed $1.6 million in ticket sales. The Sacramento Convention and Visitors Bureau said last year’s Aftershock generated more than 2,100 hotel bookings. The county received about $55,000 in parking and ticket fees last year from Aftershock. The promoter also paid the county $17,588 for rangers and maintenance. Local commerce expects to see increased business as well.
For the full Aftershock lineup and ticket information, visit AftershockConcert.com.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
