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Music festival traffic jam free, says official

Sunday, Aug. 10, marks heaviest vehicle loads for Highway 99
Rebecca Aldous
Festival traffic started to funnel in on Thursday, Aug. 7.

When Henry Metzler showed up at the giant gravel pit in Britannia Beach at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday (Aug. 7), there was already a lineup of 15 cars on Highway 99.

They were quickly ushered into the 20-acre lot, known as the Makin Lands, to be processed by the ӣƵValley Music Festival for camping. By 9 a.m. the queue was 200-vehicles long, the ӣƵresident said.

“They were cleared through in about 20 minutes,” said Metlzer, the music festival’s operations manager for the Britannia Beach site.

The organization for this year’s festival translated into a constant and steady flow of traffic without any major jams, said Tom Cloutier, Miller Capilano Maintenance Corporation’s division manager.

“They did a really good job,” he said of the traffic management.

Sunday, Aug. 10, when superstar headliner rapper Eminem was performing, there were more vehicles on the road. The same went for Monday, Aug. 11, as festival-goers headed home. On Sunday, when volumes were heaviest, the vehicles never came to a standstill nor did the line into the festival’s camper check-in at Britannia cause concerns on the highway, Cloutier noted.

“It didn’t get lined up further than the Furry Creek hill,” he said.

The gravel pit had enough room to queue two-kilometres worth of vehicles, with the objective of leaving the main Sea to Sky Corridor traffic artery free from idlers, SVMF executive director Paul Runnals told the ӣƵ a week before the concert. Festival organizer’s equipment at the site processes 800 cars per hour.

The majority of the campers arrived on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. At the beginning of the event, Genesis Security employee Mohammad Banaei said he was impressed with the organization.

“I heard it is going to be better than last year,” he said. The majority of the vehicles were arriving with two or more people inside, he noted.

“The cars are full with camping stuff and tents.”

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