Centro doubled its fleet, but both concerts let out at about the same time, leading to a wait of an hour or more.
View full sizeTraffic begins to back up on Rt. 690 westbound Wednesday in advance of two highly anticipated concerts by Justin Bieber and Lady Antebellum at the New York State Fair near Syracuse.Geddes, NY – With Justin Bieber and Lady Antebellum both playing the state fair on the same night, Centro bus officials knew they would have an unusually large crowd to ferry from the state fairgrounds to its Park-N-Ride stops around the region.
In anticipation, Centro spokesman Steve Koegel said, the bus company doubled its shuttle fleet Wednesday from 14 buses to 28 to handle departing concertgoers.
What Centro officials didn’t know, Koegel said, is that the performances would end one after the other.
The Lady Antebellum show concluded about 9:30 p.m., unleashing an estimated 29,000 to 30,000 fans from Chevrolet Court, fair spokesman Fred Pierce said. They soon were joined by 17,000 fans of teen heartthrob Bieber, whose grandstand show ended about 10 p.m., Pierce said.
They descended on the main gate seeking the same thing – Centro service to their cars.
Patrons caught in the crush called, emailed or blogged The Post-Standard and Syracuse.com, reporting that they waited an hour or more for buses to take them away.
At one point, Onondaga County Sheriff’s deputies hired by Centro to provide security told Park-N-Ride patrons to put their money away, that Centro was forgoing its usual fee to speed up boarding.
That decision by Centro officials cost about $6,000, a loss the company probably will have to eat, Koegel said.
“Our biggest concern is getting people home safely and we did that last night,” Koegel said. “We understand there were delays and we’re going to look into it and see what we can do in the future to limit it. But it was really an unprecedented event last night, as far as the demand for our service.”
View full sizeFans crowd Chevrolet Court to hear red-hot country act Lady Antebellum perform. Bus lines lengthened after Wednesday's concert at the state fair after an estimated 29,000 Lady Antebellum fans and some 17,000 Justin Bieber fans tried to leave the fairgrounds at the same time.Fair officials knew when they booked Lady Antebellum that the award-winning country group was hot, Pierce said. They deliberately scheduled Lady Antebellum for Chevrolet Court, seeking to build its reputation as one of the best free-concert venues in the nation and to give fans struggling with the ongoing sluggish economy a change to see a major act for free, he said.
The Sept. 1 date seemed ideal in that there was no grandstand show scheduled for that night, Pierce said.
That changed early Sunday, when Bieber, on doctor’s orders, put off the show he was supposed to perform that night at the fair. He wound up postponing another show in New Hampshire so he could play a makeup day at the fair – Sept. 1.
View full sizeJustin BieberOfficials at the fair accepted that date “because that’s when we could get him. We were very fortunate that he was willing to come back while the fair was still going, before school went back in,” Pierce said. Fair officials bolstered security and personnel while Centro added buses, he said.
The combined exodus of Bieber and Lady Antebellum fans was enough to lengthen bus lines, but the increase in traffic that it caused on fairgrounds exit routes added to them, Koegel said.
For example, he said, the run from the fairground to the Regional Market Park-N-Ride lot, normally a 25-minute round trip, lengthened to 35 to 40 minutes in the heavy traffic, stretching the amount of time patrons had to wait for the next shuttle to come, Koegel said.
Fair and Centro officials meet daily and Wednesday night’s experience is expected to come up, officials said.
Pierce said patrons with suggestions or complaints could email fair officials at newyorkstatefair@agmkt.state.ny.us.