SVMF impact on climbers?

[tobyfk]

Does anyone know whether the Smoke Bluffs parking lot was inaccessible during the music festival? Seemed likely, since Loggers Lane was closed.

[MarkR]

No

[tobyfk]

Sorry, does "no" mean it was inaccessible or it wasn't? The road block for the festival seemed to be right at the Loggers Lane/ 99 junction so I can't see how anyone could have accessed the parking lot?

Apparently the District of Squamish already gave the nod to a doubling in size for the festival for next year ...

[MarkR]

No it wasn't inaccessible. I climbed in the Bluffs on Sunday, parked in the normal parking lot unimpeded. Can you imagine the outcry if they closed the busiest climbing area in the province (country?) just so people could listen to Macklemore?

Oh, and Logger's Lane wasn't closed.

[tobyfk]

No it wasn't inaccessible. I climbed in the Bluffs on Sunday, parked in the normal parking lot unimpeded.

Thanks, but the festival ended on Saturday night so it is not surprising that Sunday was clear. I was interested in the situation Thursday-Saturday.

[MarkR]

Huh! You're right. I wonder where all that music was coming from then? How bizarre.

[tobyfk]

From a man who knows: "The Bluffs parking was actually not affected by the festival. The gridlock on Thursday was apparently caused by a problem with the ticket scanners. Access to the Bluffs parking was maintained via Finch/Loggers Lane on Thursday, and the standard Loggers Lane approach for the remainder of the SVMF."

[jonny2vests]

I parked at the Bluffs car park on Saturday. Pretty quiet actually.

[tobyfk]

Just a heads-up on this event. I reckon Smoke Bluffs Committee, Squamish Access Society and CASBC should start watching it carefully (if they aren't already).

Last night, despite a lot of apparent opposition from residents, District of Squamish approved additional temporary camping for the the music festival in the business park. This seems to have been the last piece of the puzzle which will allow the promoters to start selling tickets for August 2014.

This year, and then onwards for the next eight years (SVMF claim, though I can't evidence this from council records), the event will be more then double last year's size at up to 45,000. They are also adding an extra day so it runs from Thursday to Monday.

The biggest vulnerability for climbers would be festival goers discovering the Smoke Bluffs car park and using it for free parking (and camping?) near to the event. More broadly, the town will obviously be totally cluster-fucked for that period and prices of accommodation etc sky-rocketing. That may be an unwelcome surprise for visiting climbers - less so for locals, of course.

[tobyfk]

One other thing on this: I asked Paul Runnals at SVMF what their camping price would be for the new expanded business park campground. IIRC he said $70 per head. I guess at that price there will be plenty of people still arriving in town hoping to camp wild for free.