Attendance at this year’s Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Festival will be capped at 9,100 general admission tickets — at least 1,000 fewer tickets sold than in previous years — due to an agreement forged between JAS and the town of Snowmass Village after last year’s event.
With 1,000 tickets set aside for VIP “patron pass” holders and 900 people to staff the event, total attendance at the festival, which begins today, is set at a maximum of 11,000 people per day.
The town and JAS, a nonprofit organization, agreed to the cap after at least 12,000 people attended last year’s Sunday show headlined by The Allman Bothers Band. The large crowd at Snowmass Town Park led to absurdly long lines for food and bathrooms, and to considerable stress on public transportation to and from Snowmass.
The Sunday crowd was by far the largest of last year’s lineup; attendance on the other days last year ranged between 6,000 and 8,000 people per day.
“I think the consensus among everyone was that the site (on Sunday) was a little more crowded than anyone would like,” Snowmass Police Chief Art Smythe said, noting that the greatest challenge from the town’s perspective were long back-up lines to get on public transportation at the end of the concert. This led some to walk down Brush Creek Road in the dark, “something we’d like to avoid,” Smythe said.
JAS and the town of Snowmass were able to agree on a “more manageable number” for both the town and festival attendees that also gives JAS the capacity to attract major acts, Smythe said. This year’s concerts feature two nights of Widespread Panic beginning today, Bob Dylan on Saturday, John Fogerty on Sunday, and Yonder Mountain String Band on Monday.
JAS has also redesigned the site layout by adding 20 percent more portable toilets and moving their location, which will free up more space for general admission attendees to view the stage, according to JAS Chief Operating Officer Mark Breslin.
Last year’s Allman Brothers show was “a little snug,” Breslin said; the changes should make the venue “a little more user friendly.”
The festival will also employ a wristband identification system this year, which will allow for easier re-entry while also making it more difficult to perpetrate fraudulent ticket “pass backs,” in which multiple people use a single ticket to gain entry.
The wrist bands, along with real-time ticket sales information that will be shared with town officials, should give Snowmass police a good idea of exactly how many people are attending the concerts, Smythe said.
Breslin said tickets are selling well, so far. He predicted that Saturday will sell out by concert time.
curtis@aspendailynews.com
