To beat traffic, Star Lake encourages concert-goers to arrive early for Eric Church
BURGETTSTOWN, Pa. (KDKA) — It's another big weekend for the Pavilion at Star Lake.
On Saturday, Eric Church is expected to bring thousands to his concert. After traffic woes in June for another big-name show, some fear history could repeat itself.
When Dead and Company performed at the venue in June, it was a traffic nightmare outside. Some people waited for hours and never made it to the concert. Some people even ditched their cars to make it inside.
"They just left their cars. Tons of people turned around. It was just a mess," Christian Fernandez said.
Some people waited for more than five hours and never made it to the show. At the time, Star Lake said it was making improvements to its parking situation. On Facebook, it still encourages people to get to the venue early along with carpooling or ride-sharing.
"In order for it to have a positive impact, it has to be different from the rest of the traffic heading into the venue. Otherwise, you still have the same number of cars in the line," Amy Savage said.
With the number of people expected to be in the tens of thousands, there is early parking available at 1 p.m.
For everyone else, parking opens at 3 p.m. Star Lake said the closer to show time, the more traffic there will be. Some feel planning to be there early could feel like a punishment.
"I'm not trying to go there at 1 p.m. and sit there for six hours until the show starts," Savage said.
To try and crack down on people taking up parking who don't have a ticket, Star Lake says tickets to the concert will be required for parking.
"It was never this bad. What's different now?" Savage said.
KDKA-TV reached out to Star Lake, and it referred back to its Facebook post.