Gary
told me, that as a young man working at the Canadian National Exhibition
(CNE) that he was amazed at the crowds that came to visit. Back then he never
felt threatened by the crowds. In fact, he loved them! He used to make a game
of walking through the crowds to see how quickly he could maneuver his way
through them! Gary was never rude, but he did say a lot of “excuse
me’s”. Back then he could move quite quickly and was very agile! Now,
of course, it’s different. He’s a lot older and not quite as quick or agile as he
used to be! He still love walking through crowds! For me, it’s a completely
opposite story. I hates crowds!
This
“love/hate”
is the challenge that all successful festival and event organizers have to
face, because success brings bigger crowds. So how does a festival prepare for
this type of success?
First
of all, traffic control, vehicle and people, has to become an intricate part of
the planning process. If your traffic control is poor or non-existent, your
success will be short lived! Festival and event visitors will only stand for so
much inconvenience. I have talked before about parking and shuttle services, so
I won’t talk about them in this blog. Rather, I want to talk about pedestrian
traffic flow. This type of traffic is much harder to manage than vehicle
traffic because there are no “rules of the road”! It is basically
every man (person) for themselves. If organizers take this fact into
consideration, they should, at least, be able to help the traffic flow. This is
especially important if you are encouraging seniors and the disabled to attend
you event! One suggestion that I have in this area is to use “people
movers” (golf carts, mini vans,
and handicapped bus) for people who are unable or unwilling to move through
heavy crowds. This takes some of the pressure off both organizers and
seniors/disabled.
Other
suggestions for traffic control includes strategic placement of major
attractions, clustering like attractions together (food court, craft show, midway). This helps divide crowds into a
variety of different interests. One of the best festivals we visited for
traffic control was the Mississauga Waterfront Festival.
Their events were well spaced and due to their location, Memorial Park in Port
Credit, they were able to take advantage of the park’s great walkway system.
Whatever the solutions, festival and event organizers should make traffic
control a high priority.
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