A quick guide to 2016 Zumwalt Campground check-inGot your tickets for Zumwalt? Great! You have made it through the first step in the new ticketing process. The next step in the ticketing process will happen when we finally make it home to the park, and that too, will be a whole new experience. Since the very beginning, ZCG tickets were sold by TicketsWest out of the EMU at the University of Oregon. For multiple reasons, that arrangement was scrapped and ZCG tickets are now “print your own” through Lane County Parks. Those of you that are long-time Zummers know what we have done when we get to the park:
2016 ZCG Check-inYour printed ticket has a bar code on it and that one feature is going to be leveraged to hopefully streamline the check in process. The first thing you will notice is that we won’t be getting out of our vehicles. Instead we will be going through the steps as we drive in.
"Hi! You all have your tickets?" The first checkpoint will be verifying that each eligible person in the vehicle has a ticket (kiddos under 10 years are free). This will allow event staff to move vehicles with non-ticket holders into a “troubleshooting lane.” The “lane” refers to how the parking lot will be configured. We will still enter the park single file, but the parking lot will be divided into four lanes: three regular check in lanes and one for those who have ticketing issues to get sorted out. "Fill out this card." Next will be to fill out our 3”x5” cards (the camp is required to do this). You will get cards for each adult in your vehicle, and as you slowly move forward, you fill out the information. At some point later they will get the completed cards from you. "Tickets please!" The next checkpoint will be scanning tickets. A person will take and scan your tickets using an app on a smartphone. This is the point where problems with this new system will arise. If you’ve been to concerts, you know that scanners can read a ticket bar code off your phone, but it doesn’t work real well. I recommend you bring a hard copy of your ticket. Just in case Cosmo the dog eats your ticket, make your own Fair magic and put a backup .pdf on your phone. Camp staff will have a master list of all ticket sales, so there will be an organic way to verify that you’ve purchased your ticket. It will be hot with exhaust fumes in the air...be patient with the volunteers checking you in. They will be struggling too. "Left arm or right?" Once tickets are done you will move on to the banding checkpoint and that will occur in your vehicle as well. With sparkly new Zumwalt armbands you will be directed out into the camp to find your spot. This could be quite a bit better...or not. If the gods of technology will smile on us, this new check in process will be much faster than what we have done in the past. Like all new human endeavors, there will be problems. Remember that you are coming home. Keep your heart open and before you know it there will be fresh Zumwalt grass under your feet. See you there! REMINDER: There is no designated staging this year. For more information go here.
4 Comments
El Scorcho
6/10/2016 04:37:30 pm
Sorry to hear your friends missed the presale! First I need to point out that I'm not one of the organizers of the event. I'm a camper just like you. Here's what I know. Zumwalt Campground is supposed to sell 1400 tickets total; 1200 in presale and 200 reserved for onsite sales. I have an email into Mindy Sanford at the City of Veneta to see if we can find out where ticket sales are really at so people can make decisions on whether to come for the on site sales or not. She is under no obligation to tell me anything, but it would be really nice.
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Would it be a good idea to have these 3x5 cards filled out AHEAD of arrival. It's not like 3x5 cards are hard to find. What specific information needs to be on them? Could speed things up a bit, maybe combine the pre-check and card step into one step for those so prepared.
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El Scorcho
6/10/2016 04:22:52 pm
Bill, I've done that in the past as well. As I recall it's just your name, address, phone number?, and the names of any children with you. There might be other information, but the volunteers at check-in will let you know. Nevertheless, everyone will be stuck in their vehicles in the line, so unlike in the past, you won't be able to bypass the table and step up to the people taking tickets and banding. Bringing filled out cards won't speed things up, but it will give you something to do while waiting.
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Author: El Scorcho (not his real name)Been camping for Fair at Zumwalt since 1994 and still haven't seen it all. Why else have a blog for something that lasts three days, once a year? I am not an employee of the City of Veneta and have no affiliation with the Oregon Country Fair. Well, I go to Fair and I do volunteer stuff at camp, but that in no way makes this website and blog official. Consume with caution! Archives
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