More than 7,000 attend first day of VOA Country Music Fest in West Chester Twp.
Aug. 11—The first day and night of the Voices of America Country Musical Festival went off without a hitch, and police say the 7,000-plus crowd that flooded the township was a good "test run" for bigger crowds expected this weekend.
Event organizer Tyler Wogenstahl told the Journal-News there were around 7,000 fest-goers Thursday night, 20,000 were expected Friday and 80,000 total for the weekend.
"Last night was overwhelmingly positive and we're beyond excited to see how the rest of the weekend goes," he said.
The township has worked with Wogenstahl for more than a year to ensure the mega event could be handled safely — at an estimated cost of $310,078 — and efficiently, with the least amount of disruption to residents.
West Chester Police Capt. Seth Hagaman is the point-man for the event and said there were no arrests or medical emergencies Thursday night. The parking lot was cleared in about a half hour after the concert Thursday and traffic dissipated well.
"We had no problems, we had no accidents, we had no issues that occurred, we were very happy with the traffic flow," Hagaman told the Journal-News. "Today that could change, it's a Friday and there's also a larger crowd expected. But at least from our test run yesterday we were happy with all of it."
He wanted to remind people that if they try to park in no-parking zones in front the businesses, they will be towed. He said there is no parking allowed on the residential streets. There are 3,000 parking spots at the Voice of America Park, 500 at the Nazarene Church and shuttles will be running to and from Lakota East High School where there are nearly 1,000 spots.
The weather is not expected to cooperate as well on Saturday — torrential rain and storms have been predicted at times — so Hagaman said they have access to a meteorologist and a weather forecasting and radar system to stay ahead of game.
"We have parameters set as far as wind and lightning and what's tolerable," he said. "Once lightning or a certain amount of wind is reached, we'll have to pause the show and we'll communicate with people at the event."
He encouraged fest-goers to download the festival's app because if they need to clear the venue due to storms, they'll be communicating with ticketholders through the app or people's email if they have registered through that outlet.
"We're hoping that doesn't happen but if it does we're going to do our best to get the show started as soon as the weather clears," he said.
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See photos of each day of the VOA Country Music Fest.
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