No major issues at Luke Bryan’s Farm Tour concert, officials say
BALTIMORE – Local officials reported no major issues Friday at Luke Bryan's Farm Tour 2021 concert at the Miller Family Farm, while one girl had the experience of a lifetime.
The attendance was estimated at 20,000 and Fairfield County Emergency Management Agency Director Jon Kochis said there were about 70 calls for medical issues, mostly heath and alcohol-related and disorderly conduct issues, but no major problems.
This was Bryan's second visit to the Miller Family Farm. He performed there in 2019, but on a different part of the property. That show also drew about 20,000 people.
Sheriff Alex Lape said eight to 10 people were either arrested or issued summons, including two for assaulting an officer. But overall, Lape said all went well considering the amount of people at the show.
“There were some, I guess, you could classify as behavioral-type incidents,” he said. “People just celebrating a little bit too hard.”
Lape said traffic flow was as good as it could be with about 10,000 vehicles using two entrance ways and two exits.
“That was probably the biggest hurdle of the concert enjoyment,” he said. “And that is basically more because of the venue than anything else. But it went pretty well. It was just a matter of getting them flowing.”
It took about two hours to clear the parking after the show ended around 11 p.m., Kochis said.
“We had a good parking plan and then, unfortunately, folks did not stay in their lanes and started crisscrossing,” he said. “That created kind of a bigger delay than if they'd just stayed in their lanes. Our plan is to always mix traffic lane by lane.
“So if you have 30 lanes across that you're staring at, you take five from each lane and we would eventually get those folks out. However, behind the first couple cars people just started driving and going around the parking lot. So that creates chaos and there's not really much we can do to manage that.”
While there were no major injuries, Kochis said there were more alcohol and
dehydration issues than at the 2019 show.
“The Walnut Township Fire Department did an excellent job of getting those folks hydrated and back out there or safely to their cars,” Kochis said.
Janet Hill was one of the 20,000 in attendance.
“It was fantastic,” she said. “He puts on a very good show.”
Hill said this year's show was better than in 2019.
“Just his performance and the parking and the venue, everything seemed to go a lot smoother,” she said.
She had no trouble choosing her favorite moment. That's when Bryan summoned her 9-year-old daughter, Jemma, up to the stage to help him sing “Waves.”
“She was on top of somebody's shoulders and during a song he spotted her and pointed at her and sort of motioned for her to come here,” Hill said. “The person whose shoulders she was on kind of pushed his way up to the front. Before we knew it the security guards were taking her off his shoulders and putting her on the stage. Then she finished singing the song with him. We did not expect that to happen.”
Hill said Bryan no doubt turned Jemma into a fan for life.
“We did not expect that to happen,” she said of her daughter's experience. jbarron@gannett.com 740-304-9296
Twitter: @Jeffdbarron