KLCC 89.7 FM will broadcast from the Oregon Country Fair throughout the weekend of July 8, 9, 10, 2016. The live broadcast brings the magic of the Fair to everyone with a radio, computer or smartphone! Enjoy the Main Stage Music plus interviews with musicians, entertainers and other Fair characters. If you're at the Fair, stop by our booth near the Main Stage meadow and chat with us! Or let us take you there via 89.7 FM,klcc.org, or the KLCC app! KLCC shares the booth with the W.O.W. Hall, which operates a storage service during Fair hours for backpacks and other personal items. KLCC and the W.O.W. Hall, two popular Eugene institutions for over 40 years, share not only a booth at the Fair, but a commitment to bringing a rich variety of entertainment to the Eugene community all year long. The Oregon Country Fair live broadcast is available on the radio, online at klcc.org, and via the KLCC app for iPhone, iPad and Android. Keep the magic of the Oregon Country Fair with you, courtesy of KLCC 89.7 FM Eugene. See original post here.
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What's going on with Zumwalt Buses?El Scorcho does not get up early in the morning during Fair. This was a serious problem last year (2015) because when I got to the bus stop with my Scorcholitos, the line for the bus was down the east side of the parking lot, around past the porta-potties, and down the road towards the forest. Needless to say, we did NOT get to see Chris Chandler rant about seeing Jack Kerouac walking out of a Piggly-Wiggly that day. We were filled with joy and relief when we were able to get on a bus and start the journey to the Fair. But when the bus made a left turn onto Territorial Highway and then accelerated west on Hwy-126 I had Jim Morrison singing in my head “...driver where you takin’ us?” We careened onto the west end of Suttle Road and headed towards the Fair site like Mr. Toad’s wild ride. We made it, but it wasn’t the mellow hippie sing-a-long we normally enjoy. What the hell happened? What we didn’t know at the time is that traffic heading into the Fair was backed up east on Suttle Road all the way to the Hilltop Market in Elmira. The line of vehicles continued south on Territorial Highway. It was gridlock. Again we ask, what the hell happened? Zummers have speculated at what is causing the long lines to get a bus to Fair:
There are probably two primary factors that have lead to the traffic difficulties at Territorial Highway and Suttle Road. First, while Zumwalt has had the same number of attendees for years, the Fair has had steadily increasing attendance. However, increasing crowds alone are not enough to explain gridlock traffic. The other major factor is HOW those people get there. Most drive their own vehicles, and those who don’t unerringly know their way home like a tie-dyed pigeon, use GPS on their smartphone to navigate their way to the Fair site. A quick look at Google Maps shows that the address for the Oregon Country Fair is not surprisingly on Suttle Road. El Scorcho lives in Corvallis, Oregon and if I set up directions to the Fair using Google Maps the app diligently routes me through (guess where!) the dreaded intersection of Territorial Highway and Suttle Road. The same holds true for those approaching from Eugene and Crow. Folks from the coast are routed through the opposite end of Suttle Road. Now one does not have to be a traffic engineer to grasp that having many thousands of vehicles funneled to the gate on Suttle Road is REALLY BAD. The entry road is only two lane and narrow. Control of traffic on Suttle Road is problematic. But most important to Zummers, it’s where the bus entry is located! THAT is why our buses are running so slow: they have been caught in gridlock generated by how people navigate these days. Now, in your mind, go back to last year. Your one of our bus drivers who has volunteered to take this shift, not just because it’s overtime, but also because Zumwalt Campers are a fun bunch to drive around (that’s not speculation, I’ve heard it many times from drivers). You start looking to have a great day of work, but then find yourself thrust into a situation like Death Race 2000. Each trip to the Fair site takes longer. Frustration mounts. You collaborate with your fellow drivers on an alternate route...but even that doesn’t work and we all find ourselves in a quagmire of cars. That is how you, me, and my beautiful Scorcholitos found ourselves travelling at warp speed down Highway 126 to the far end of Suttle Road with a grumpy driver white-knuckled at the wheel. The purpose in telling this story is not to make excuses for bad behavior or unsafe driving. One of the main purposes of going to Fair and being at Zumwalt is to have a great time and we all share in making that experience. Not everything will go as planned. Problems will arise and bad stuff will happen despite our diligent planning. We can’t change that, but we can control how we respond to adversity. If you encounter a situation that isn’t right, you need to let the folks at cam registration know. Organizers can’t fix what they don’t know about. Some people were really shook up by their rides into the Fair last year and are still upset. The folks who staff registration are sympathetic and want to know if there is a problem, whether the response needs to be immediate (bad behavior or unsafe driving), or if it’s something that needs to be addressed the next year (Should we get a fifth bus?). Keep in mind that those at registration are Fair Family too. Try to keep your conversation mellow and loving while conveying the important information. You will be fulfilling an important function in making Fair better for all of us. Speaking of Fair, what are they doing to address this traffic mess? There are no specifics to share, but we do know that they will be making an effort to direct traffic towards the Maple Gate on Highway 126. That entry onto the Fair property is closer to where people will ultimately park, and has greater capacity to move more volume. Cross your fingers and hope that the Fair magic will happen and our buses will only hit traffic at the intersection of Suttle and Aero Road. On the other hand, maybe bring some magic to pass the time waiting in line, just in case we have a repeat of last year. Looking forward to singing with you on the ride to the Fair! -- El Scorcho 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. Campers, the race is on to get your Zumwalt Campground Tickets! El Scorcho was totally drinking too much Fireball when he told you that it might be two more weeks. The leaked rumors are true. Zumwalt camping tickets (NOT Oregon Country Fair) are available exclusively through the Lane County Parks reservations website that can be accessed from El Scorcho’s tickets landing page: Please share any problems you have with the Lane County tickets site or other thoughts you have in the comments below. Also, the City of Veneta has an official Zumwalt Campground information page you should look over closely as well: And if you hadn’t heard, the rules around staging before entering the park on Fair weekend have changed. You can read all about that here: UPDATES
Good question. Well campers, El Scorcho a conversation with our Grand Dame, Mindy Sandford at the City of Veneta, and the rumors are true. Zumwalt tickets will no longer be sold through Tickets West or at the EMU at the University of Oregon. So where the hell are tickets going to be sold? Lane County Parks is going to be the vendor for Zumwalt tickets and El Scorcho has made a nice webpage to point you in the right direction. You should check it out. The goal is to have Zumwalt tickets ready for sale by April 1st, but I suspect that is an April Fools joke. You can probably expect Zumwalt tickets going on sale in the middle of April. Don’t worry, El Scorcho will let you know when it happens! The change in ticket vendors has been in the works for a couple years now. Turns out that Lane County doesn’t charge as much as Tickets West to be a vendor, but that’s not the best part. If everything works as planned, you will be printing your tickets. Each ticket will have a barcode on it. This will allow registration to happen...get this...in your f$@#ing car! That’s right campers, drive in, scan, band, and proceed to your final destination without ever leaving your vehicle. Have kiddos? No problem. Get camped and band ‘em later. Before you get all excited (and I know you are because it’s SPRING and Fair is how many days away?), keep in mind that this is all up in the air until the official word comes out. The second El Scorcho has the low down he will pass it on to you. -- El Scorcho
How we wait to get into Zumwalt Campground (ZCG) for the Oregon Country Fair is different this year. For those who don’t really know what ZCG is or what goes on there, you can learn more here. The Oregon Country Fair begins on the Friday after Independence Day every year. ZCG, a camping event for people attending the Fair, opens the gate for campers on the Thursday the same week, at 2 p.m. in the afternoon, and not a second before. People travel from far and wide to come to Fair and camp at Zumwalt, and many arrive early on Thursday. In recent years, there has been a designated staging area off of Jeans Road in Veneta where the Zumwalt tribe would congregate. In 2015, people who parked at the designated staging area were allowed to enter the park before anyone else. For 2016, that is not going to happen. That is to say, the City of Veneta isn’t telling campers where to go before the gate opens on Thursday, and there will be no preferential entry to the park at the designated time.
Now those of you who have been camping at ZCG for many years have seen this before. Those were the wild years when people would park willy-nilly on Jeans Road and get busted by the fuzz. Fortunately, cannabis possession laws have changed in Oregon, but you can still get seriously hassled by law enforcement. I’m not going to tell you what to do before the gate opens, but here are some ideas for how to manage that slice of time from dawn on Thursday of Fair weekend and the stampede at the Zumwalt gate. |
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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