Music festival crowd is going to be a doozy
Grandoozy pedestrians, beware!
As you head in and out of the Denver music festival’s gates this weekend, you’ll be navigating busy roads. Watch out for cars, bicycles, trains and other pedestrians. And the neighbors who live near the festival site — Overland Park Golf Course — ask that you respect their property by not throwing out garbage or using their yards as restrooms.
Grandoozy is an inaugural threeday festival beginning Friday that’s being held on a historic south Denver golf course sandwiched between busy highways and residential neighborhoods, and it’s bringing a mix of excitement and uncertainty to the neighborhood when it comes to public safety.
“Everybody has concerns because it’s a firsttime event,” said Hina Chowdry, a Fox Street resident who lives near the golf course. “Just like any festival, everybody has to have common sense. You can only do your best to police a crowd. Things happen in any venue where there’s music, drinking and drugs.”
Grandoozy organizers are keeping their ticket sales a secret, but when they sought city approval to hold the festival they described an event that could attract 30,000 to 40,000 people per day in its first year, which will be headlined by Kendrick Lamar, Florence + The Machine and Stevie Wonder.
Since there will be no parking available on the festival grounds or in surrounding neighborhoods, that means a lot of pedestrians will be navigating busy Santa Fe Drive and West Evans Avenue or walking through residential streets to get to the golf course.
“The only traffic we get here is golf traffic,” Chowdry said.
Grandoozy organizers and the Denver Police Department insist they will be ready, although they would not reveal the number of police officers and security staff that will be on hand.
“I can tell you it will be more than adequate for the size crowd we’re expecting,” said Rick Farman, a cofounder of Superfly, the company that owns Grandoozy. “We do largescale events all over the country, and I’m sure we’ll be exceeding what you normally see.”
Superfly worked with the Denver Police Department to create plans for traffic, security and evacuations, Farman said. The festival also hires private security firms to patrol the grounds and contracts with local companies to provide emergency medical treatment.
Festivalgoers will be screened by metal detectors, said David Ehrlich, Grandoozy’s executive producer.
“Obviously, the safety and security of everybody is the No. 1 thing in mind when we plan,” Farman said. “We’ve done a lot of work to make sure this is going to be a fun, great, safe experience.”
A law enforcement professional in Tennessee who has worked with Superfly to plan the company’s annual Bonnaroo music festival offered assurances that Grandoozy will run smoothly and safely.
“If Superfly is involved and they handle it like they do here, do not panic,” said Coffee County, Tenn., Sheriff Chad Partin.
Partin has worked Bonnaroo — held for four days on a farm outside Manchester, Tenn. — for 16 years. The Superfly team knows how to move traffic, respond to overdoses and screen for lawbreakers, he said.
Grandoozy won’t be on quite the same scale as Bonnaroo, especially since people won’t be camping, which requires a 24hour presence, Partin said.
Bonnaroo draws between 50,000 to 80,000 people a year, Partin said. For that size crowd, the sheriff’s department, along with the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the local police department, assign more than 200 officers to the festival and the roads leading to it, Partin said.
Those numbers don’t include Visitors to Grandoozy can reach the festival by bike or mass transit. They can also be dropped off, but there is no on-site parking. private security firms or security teams that travel with the performing artists.
“It’s just about all hands on deck for four days,” Partin said.
Drugs are the biggest problem for Tennessee law enforcement. First responders also see a lot of dehydration and heat exhaustion, which often go handinhand with too much booze and drugs, the sheriff said.
“They’re environmentally conscious except when it comes to polluting their bodies,” Partin said of Bonnaroo festivalgoers.
The types of intoxicants used at the festival depend on the music, he said.
“If it was all country, it would be hard liquor and beer,” the sheriff said. “If Phish or Widespread Panic comes to town, you bring in the hippies and a lot of pot and pot derivatives. You get a lot of hallucinogens.”
Over the years, Bonnaroo has experienced tragic deaths. One
Cperson died at this year’s festival from a lethal combination of narcotics and extreme heat, Partin said. People also have been killed in construction accidents during preparations for festival and by running into traffic, including one year when a person was hit and killed by Ricky Skaggs’ tour bus.
Still, the tragedies are limited, considering the size of the crowd, he said.
John White, a Denver police spokesman, said the department has worked with Grandoozy to provide a security detail inside the venue and to help police the surrounding neighborhoods. A comprehensive plan is in place to manage vehicle and foot traffic, he said.
And even though it will be a busy weekend in the city with a full slate of concerts at Red Rocks, a Broncos home game and the opening of Denver Beer Fest, the department is ready, White said.
“We feel prepared for Grandoozy,” he said. There is no parking at the festival. Repeat, there is no parking at the festival. People who park in surrounding neighborhoods, including in Ruby Hill Park, will be towed. Friends can drop festivalgoers off on South Platte River Drive between Santa Fe Drive and South Huron Street, or at Grant Frontier Park on South Platte River Drive off of West Evans Avenue. To get there, take the RTD light rail to either the Evans Street Station and walk to the festival or ride to the I25/Broadway Station and use a free shuttle to the grounds. The pickup and dropoff location is on Santa Fe Drive at Jewell Avenue. Overland Park Golf Course is next to the South Platte River Trail and about a 15minute bike ride from REI’s flagship store at 1416 Platte St. Grandoozy will provide a valet service to safely store bicycles at the intersection of Platte River Trail and West Asbury Avenue near the festival’s south entrance on Jewell Street. If you experience safety problems associated with the festival, you can call the Grandoozy hotline at 7206698410.