Raleigh discusses upcoming Dreamville festival

tacular and really exciting for the parking for the city

with the numbers from 2019 it showed that most of

the people who attended were from out of out of

state

What do you think that economic the expected economic growth

in um really experience will bring this year to the

city of Raleigh especially coming out of an ongoing pandemic

Sure so as you saw in the 2019 numbers the

economic impact was just great and vast and felt all

throughout our community

It was the highest weekend of Wake County Hotel occupancy

that this area has ever seen

Local businesses really benefited from those folks and we're just

excited that the same thing will happen again this year

It's folks coming in they need somewhere to sleep they

need somewhere to eat they need things to do

So how exciting for our local community and our local

economy that we can bring this opportunity and really not

only boost the festival but everything here in Raleigh as

well

Some questions just about the layout of the park of

course is just such a huge place to hold events

perfect for this type of event

So how do you know like the layout of which

spaces will be used for this I don't see the

construction over in this here

Sure

So the primary space that's used for the festival itself

is the big field which is on the other side

of the buildings over there

That is a 35 acre field here in the park

It's really the showcase piece of Dix Park the big

field that can host these large events in these large

festivals like you said it's perfect for an event like

this we can put that tens of thousands of people

in a space like that there's adequate room for them

to spread out and all of those different pieces

So like you said it really boasts well for an

event like this in that space

Also you can see kind of ancillary pieces being set

up around the big field all the different supports of

where the artists will stage where all the concessionaires will

stage where people park kind of staff aspects of people

will park all of the festival attendees will park off

site

So Dix Park really has all of those different amenities

we need to support a festival like this

Is there a layout that they gave you that they

shared with you that you can share with us I

don't know if that's something Yeah I know they'll eventually

post the site map yep so they'll eventually share a

festival site map like on their social media pages and

whatnot

The site map we have is more about loading and

whatnot and the different event components and they're trying to

keep that under wraps right now

So it doesn't kind of spoil the user's experience day

of show speaking to the security of the concert you

know in november of 2019 there was unfortunately a really

tragic event that happened at a Travis scott concert in

Houston I'm sure you guys heard of it when the

crowd kind of rushed toward the stage

Can you guys talk about the security Obviously you mentioned

Dix Park is very spread out there hoping that people

just kind of spread out in these situations

Can you talk about the security in the sense of

the stage and how we're gonna be able to keep

people safe close to the stage and what that might

look like So I think I think a lot of

what you're asking has to do with the infrastructure uh

and and I can't speak to that um you know

I do know that they do take those concerns into

two hand when they when they are laying out the

event platform

Uh what I will say is that we do have

a contingency in place from a law enforcement perspective and

from a medical perspective we do have a contingency in

place to address those issues on the onset that that

those type of behaviors are observed

Um so that we hope to address it immediately before

it ever escalates to the point of an astral world

events

Can you explain any of those contingency plans No I'm

not going to go into detail on those plans

I will I will just say that we are prepared

for those um we are prepared for those events whether

it be any type of crowd control events or whether

it be just general security and traffic

Um so we do have a good contingency in place

that we're all comfortable with we definitely think that we're

prepared for it

Um But I'm not going to go into details of

what those preparations are I'm sorry traffic logistics and everything

so traffic so I think the biggest impact that you're

going to see is gonna be the traffic

Um You know we we have a contingency in place

to address the traffic

Um but you know we're going to try to minimize

the traffic impact and try to lessen the amount um

that the surrounding community is impacted but 40,000 people there's

no way that we're going to totally eliminate traffic back

up

The one thing that I can guarantee you that there

will be a traffic impact

Traffic is gonna back up

Um We're gonna try to minimize that impact as much

as possible but there will be a traffic impact

Um The the the biggest impact that you'll see is

um you know there's no on site parking

So I think the one thing that everyone needs to

know is that you cannot get onto you cannot drive

onto dix park via uh western boulevard um except for

family and friends drop off

So family and friends drop off will be um accessible

via boiling avenue but all ride sharing services lift uber

taxis or any other commercial drop offs will be on

centennial parkway

Um As far as the offsite parking the offsite parking

will be um primarily foreign centennial campus um and what

we're suggesting is that people that are trying to go

to the offsite parking on centennial campus is to use

I 40 don't use western boulevard

Come I 40

Uh If you're on I

40 west uh take the lake wheeler Road exit exit

to 97

If you're on I

40 east take the Gorman Street exit which is 2

95

And that way we have people coming from two different

directions instead of everybody trying to come at one single

exit

Um There's also a downtown shuttle there's parking in downtown

parking decks and we have a shuttle pickup area at

More square Park

So we'll have shuttle busses running from More Square Park

that'll be running continuously um throughout the the event

And and also transporting people back at the end of

the event back to the downtown area so they can

get back to the thousands and thousands of people in

there

The biggest way that we use to minimize the impact

is actually having officers to work the traffic intersections giving

priority to the the the the priority thoroughfares

Um And and and instead of allowing the traffic signals

to work and we can actually work it manually and

we can make those adjustments in real time based on

the peak hours

Will you tell people that live in the area that's

gonna be driving should just tell them to stay away

from a certain area How you how you work in

that part Well obviously um if you live in the

area I will say expect delays

Um if you live in the area you probably know

some alternate routes

I would say utilize those alternate routes

Um But you know like I said we are doing

what we can to minimize that and we are cognitive

of of people that that live in the area

They have to get home and and and actually have

to leave home as well to get to work or

you know wherever they need to go but um you

know be patient of the biggest thing is is being

patient and giving yourself some extra time

Do you know about how many officers you'll have working

the weekend Yeah I'm not going to go into details

and give you any specific numbers because that's part of

our security aspect that we try to keep you have

to ask for help from other agencies

I'm sorry did you guys need to have help from

other agencies in the area Yes

Yes we have Wake County Sheriff's Department that's helping us

out

We have state capitol police department that's helping us out

And of course the police department

Can you just stay until your first and last name

please Yeah

First name is Dedrick D

E

D

R

I

C

And last name

Bond bong

It seems like busting is going to be one of

your primary ways to get people here you know how

many busses you're gonna use Are they going to be

the big city busses Uh

Right yep yep

So I'm not sure what busses are going to be

utilized that's something that the festival people have contracted with

So I'm not sure what busses are going to be

utilized but there is a specific bus route that that

will be utilized and coming from More square is basically

gonna be southbound Blood Street to martin Luther King boulevard

and martin Luther King boulevard to Dawson Street

Then we'll cut through um on May would also Dawson

Street to Saunders to Maywood and then to centennial parkway

once they get to Lakewood Road Do you guys have

an estimated economic impact coming from a one a one

day event in 2019 to 2 years later a two

day event

People are excited about something like this

We don't have an estimated kind of number at this

time

We do know and just learning from 2019 that there

obviously was a great economic impact to the area will

have that data post event and we can share that

out with everyone but there's not really an estimated number

at this time

Could you are either one of you um talk about

how many vendors or like local businesses will be allowed

to work here and also maybe the opportunity for local

bartenders or whoever to get a hand and working as

well

Sure I'm not sure if specific numbers but I can

talk about some of the local businesses inventors that are

involved

So local food trucks have the opportunity to apply to

be part of the event

Several of those local food trucks were selected will actually

be in the festival footprint

So that's very exciting for those local business owners

Also there's different artists that are involved are explosion contracting

with

Some other local artists are doing different art decor pieces

at the festival

And then obviously the impact like you talked about downtown

just when the festival is over when people are coming

in town before and after looking for places to eat

and drink and hang out

That's where people are going to congregate and go

So it's just a great kind of benefit to those

businesses downtown as well

Is there any estimate at this point of how many

tickets were purchased by out of state We do not

have any of that data at this time

Could you maybe I'll go around and say like lessons

that you learned the last time there was this festival

that might lead to changes that we're implementing this time

around

If there's anything policing setup

So I think the biggest lesson learned was the traffic

impact from ride sharing

Um you know in 2019 we had one designated a

lot that was that was designated for ride sharing

That totally was not large enough

Um we we definitely underestimated the amount of people that

would be utilizing ridesharing So that's why we have the

secondary rides here in location on centennial parkway

Um and so with that being said centennial parkway is

actually gonna be closed between Oval Drive and Achievement Drive

during our preparation for egress

So as the end of the show um gets closer

we'll start closing uh centennial parkway at Oval and Achievement

in order to set up and allow ridesharing vehicles to

stage and to to allow our shuttle busses to stage

on centennial parkway

So I think the biggest lesson learned is better preparation

for egress at the end of the night

I see a lot of the a lot of the

other lesson learned we're really feedback for the festival producers

You know we all heard comments after 2019 and people

talking about longer lines for concessions and things of that

nature

All that feedback was provided by the city and a

report back to the festival organizers I know that they've

done things to address those aspects but really a lot

of that feedback was for the festival organizers that they've

worked with the city on To address and we feel

confident that they've really focused in on some of those

pieces and really have some good plans on how they're

going to address those things in 26

Um so I'm not sure this is a question for

the Greenville organizers but if we're expecting rain this coming

weekend how will that impact any of these plans that

you guys have or is there um any sort of

people bring umbrellas arena would have to answer questions around

kind of like what's allowed on the festival What's not

We obviously have plans in place for severe weather and

things of that nature but the organizer kind of outlines

what you can bring into the festival what you cannot

obviously rain has not welcomed at an event like this

So we'll be depending on how much rain comes and

things of that nature will address those plans at that

time

Would you add anything else about weather Would there possibly

be more E

M

T.S

professionals on site then there wasn't 2019 to kind of

respond to any potential issues with crowds or even you

know people getting injured as we've seen before at that

last festival that was mentioned as well

So I think uh you know I don't want to

speak for E

M

S because they're not represented here today but we do

have a medical contingency as well just like how we

have improved our law enforcement contingency I do know that

there is an improvement in the medical contingency

Are there any logistical changes needed to take it from

a one day event to a two day event Tell

me more what you mean by logistical changes staffing you

know traffic obviously if it's a huge endeavor one day

I'm sure it's going to be bigger endeavor the second

day that sort of thing

I think what's nice about a festival like this is

kind of once you build it you know it's kind

of there that you know it kind of makes sense

that when the request came to the city of like

oh we want to do a two day event From

the park's perspective the cities perspective it doesn't require anymore

of having to shut additional things down

There was obviously additional planning that went in place for

resources and things of that nature to make sure things

were covered from a two day festival

But from the city you know it's just more opportunities

that there's heads and beds and hotels and people going

downtown and eating and drinking and all those great things

as well

Also allows more artists to play and people to be

able to experience more of the artists that they want

to see

So drink will release kind of the line up the

schedule

So people already starting to pinpoint my favorite artists gonna

play over those two days to some of those aspects

Are there any concerns for just the park itself like

the grassy areas where these stages are just the thousands

of people who will be Here for two days walking

and if it rains and it's all muddy is there

any sort of concern there So if you were here

in 2019 it was like the worst case scenario the

day before the festival we got two inches of rain

So we had mud and things all over the place

The great thing about Dreamsville is they have made a

commitment that when they leave here they are going to

leave this place looking just as beautiful as it does

today In 2019 they contracted a landscaping company that came

in cleaned up all of those different areas and weeks

later you couldn't even tell we have received all that

rain and at all that mud

So one of the things the city really appreciates is

that the festival organizers do is there's a commitment to

making sure that when they leave the public can come

right back into space and enjoy it

Just like they do today as far as the vendors

go you mentioned that obviously a lot of people have

to apply for this

It's a very obviously competitive thing because it's good for

those businesses

Do we know if they've released a vendor list yet

or if they plan on doing that today or sometime

this week I'm not aware of one that would be

a question for Dream Will because it was totally on

them to select what vendors were going to be at

the festival is also on them as far as like

having public restrooms available or is that something they discussed

with you that you all know how that goes

So there's a requirement when you do an event of

permitted event through the city that you provide us how

many public restrooms you're gonna have and things of that

nature

They provided that in all of their planning and documentation

they had to provide to get a permit to use

the space

So that's all included there

Do you want to say any more about that I

mean I can say that they exceed the amount that

we require kind of noise impacted residents in the area

expect for the so the the festival goes until 11

p.m. So at 11 o'clock in kind of coordination with

the noise ordinance the festival will stop obviously during the

festival folks are going to hear some music coming from

the park in 2019 we heard from residents around that

They heard some music but the dream of folks have

done a really great job of notifying Residents and businesses

right here in this kind of radius of the park

that this is happening that they can be aware

Another piece of Greenville has done is they've established a

community hotline where folks are having questions during the festival

itself those residents have been provided that information that they

can call and then say Hey I have a question

about this or I'm seeing this impact happened

Can you help me So a lot of those things

are in place in 2019

I remember they went around to residents offered them free

tickets to the festival because of the noise

You know they were doing that again this year so

I can't necessarily speak on that

I do know like I said they've reached out to

residents made sure they had that information

There was also a community meeting that Greenville hosted here

at the park where they invited residents to come in

and and businesses right here in this radius to kind

of learn more about the festival in those aspects

So that would be a question to dream about some

of that

Mm hmm firing on all cylinders this morning

That's great

Thank you guys

Thank you

We have the text

Right The Greenville season for emergency

Yeah

The public notification

So we can share that too

So we can email that out

Like the public one that people can join

We can share that information

Yeah

Just in case they want to have it as a

tag

Okay But just the text

Alright we're good

Thank you

Thanks everybody

Thank you

33 in the cold

I think it's not going anymore

Oh excuse me