Arrington
Nelson County, VA
As we’ve been discussing for days, Lockn’ Festival was on the way for Nelson County. Thursday morning the traffic started pouring in for what will be a four day long music event ending on Sunday September 8th. Numerous reports of traffic congestion in some areas were already coming in Thursday morning, but the bulk of traffic is expected the closer toward the weekend as people get off Friday.
As seen above, Blue Mountain Brewery’s Barrel House grounds in Arrington / Colleen have been transformed for camping and celebrations. BMB highly encourages people to camp there and use their shuttle service to and from the festival avoiding all of the traffic hassles!
Below was a release VDOT put out Thursday morning at 6AM regarding traffic near the festival:
TRAFFIC SLOWS ON U.S. 29 IN NELSON COUNTY
Traffic volume increasing as opening of Lockn’ Music Festival takes placeLYNCHBURG – The traffic volume on U.S. 29 in Nelson County has increased significantly throughout the day and traffic is backed up on portions of U.S. 29 North and several roads leading to Oak Ridge and the Lockn’ Music Festival site. Motorists may wish to consider using Route 151 (Patrick Henry Highway) from the intersection of Route 29/151 in Amherst County to the intersection of Route 250/151 in Albemarle County as an alternate route. This route is not recommended for trucks.
Through Monday morning at the latest, access to crossovers between Oak Ridge Road (Route 635) and Tye River Road (Route 739) will be restricted and law enforcement will be monitoring various locations.
Motorists should be alert to several changes in traffic pattern in the area and follow the signage. Thru traffic on U.S. 29 South should use the right lane, while thru traffic on U.S. 29 North should use the left lane.
Southbound traffic going to the Festival or wanting to return northbound will make a U-turn approximately five miles south of the Oak Ridge Road crossover. Festival traffic will be moved to the right lane and follow signage to the event.
Up-to-date information on possible congestion may be obtained by calling 511 or viewing conditions at www.511Virginia.org.
BRLM is highly encouraging people near the festival to put traffic reports up on our Twitter Feed, or Facebook, and as alway you can comment down below!
So as nearly every resident of Nelson County is aware of by now, Thursday, September 5th, will be the start of a disasterous event called the Interlocken Music Festival. Even before starting, this event has been the cause of grief and inconvenience for many residents throughout the entire county. It is most certainly going to be a major source of angst for much of the county population along the 29 corridor from Lovingston to the Amherst County line, and in a 5 mile radius around Oak Ridge Estate.
Here are just some of the issues the voting and/or tax paying population is going to be forced to contend with:
A.) All county public schools closed for 2 days. Education has been forced to take a back seat to revenue potential. Parents/families have been forced to make alternate arrangments for daycare.
B.) Road closures/denial of access to every side road on the 29 corridor for all residents from the high school/middle school complex down to the Amherst County line.
C.) Noise well past 11:00pm on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights.
D.) Disrupted postal delivery for all residents who will be affect directly by the road closures. If residents have a hard time getting in/out of their neighborhoods, don’t count on timely postal delivery for them either.
E.) Many Nelson County residents are fleeing the county for the weekend because they do not want to deal with this headache. They essentially are being forced to pay for a trip away that was not planned or desired, all because of the lack of respect from the Board of Supervisors and Oak Ridge Estates.
I have heard many people express an expectation of the Nelson County Board of Supervisors to reduce or even eliminate properties taxes because of the expected revenue from this event. Let me make this very clear – THAT WILL NOT HAPPEN. No government, be it local, state, or federal, will ever willingly eliminate or reduce an established revenue stream. They already have plans for the projected taxes to be collected from Nelson County residents and they will not accept less because of additional income coming from any other source such as this event.
In order to ensure this is the only Interlocken Festival held in Nelson County, there must be a concerted effort by residents to inform the Board of Supervisors to abandon plans of making this an annual event. It doesn’t matter if you are a registered voter or not, you still have a voice in Nelson County as a tax payer. Contact each and every Board of Supervisor member and express your dismay and frustration at their continued lack of concern for the citizens they claim to serve. Contact all of them, not just the one who represents your particular district. Make your voice heard loud and clear.
To ease your access to them, here are the Board of Supervisor members and their contact information as found on the Nelson County’s website:
Constance Brennan
524 Buck Creek Lane
Faber, VA 22938
434.263.4690
cbrennan@nelsoncounty.org
Thomas H. Bruguiere, Jr.
187 Jack’s Hill Road
Roseland, VA 22967
434.277.8609
orchards187@gmail.com
Allen Hale
3130 Laurel Road
Shipman, VA 22971
434.263.4549
super@buteobooks.com
Thomas D. Harvey
10921 Rockfish Valley Highway
Afton, VA 22920
540.456.6379
540.456.7125 (fax)
Larry Saunders
1610 Wilson Hill Rd.
Arrington, VA 22922
434.263.4201
larrya5819@aol.com
Physical Address
84 Courthouse Square
Lovingston, VA 22949
Mailing Address
P.O. Box 336
Lovingston, VA 22949
Board’s Business Contact Number
434.263.7000
888.662.9400
Again, contact all of the Board members directly, day or night, and voice your concerns and frustrations. If they don’t hear from concerned residents in concentrated numbers, the Board members will continue to make poor decisions that will have a significantly negative impact on the lives of so many Nelson County residents.
People should also call the Nelson County Sheriff’s non-emergency line at 434.263.7050 and file noise complaints. The weekly published call log should explode from so many complaints against this festival.
Additionally, call Reagan H Thompson, who was instrumental on behalf of Oak Ridge Estate’s part for bringing this calamity to Nelson County. I do not have a confirmed phone number for Ms. Thompson, but every resident should do their best to see that she shares in the receipt of complaints about this disasterous festival as well.
Lastly, if you vote and/or pay taxes in Nelson County, come to the next Board of Supervisors meeting, which is scheduled for Tuesday, September 10th. There will be two sessions of the Board that day, one in the afternoon at 2:00pm and the other at 7:00pm. Attend one or both if you are able and MAKE YOUR VOTING/TAX PAYER VOICE HEARD!
Please share this with every resident of Nelson County who is opposed to the Interlocken Festival………
As taxpayers who own property in the area, my husband and I are very concerned about this. We are music lovers and wish this endeavor success, but the roads in Nelson are not designed to handle this kind of traffic. Why not provide shuttle busses for all attendees except for those who are actually camping on the grounds? This would eliminate much of the gridlock. What happens if emergency vehicles have to get through some of the back roads which are blocked? This could have been thought through a bit better.
[…] Nelson County, VA After a tense start with traffic at a standstill on Thursday as it entered the first ever Lockn’ Festival in Nelson County, things are going much more […]
[…] of the show and wait to leave Friday morning, we avoided what sounded like a truly contentious traffic situation — backed up for 2 miles or more by some accounts. About 47% of the attendees were arriving […]