by KYW's David Madden
Opponents of a planned three-day music festival on a Vineland, NJ farm next summer are doing more than complaining about it -- they’re organizing to try and stop it.
They call themselves NARCS, and it has nothing to do with drugs. Rather, they’re the "Neighbors Against Rock Concert Site" -- a small but growing group of people who don’t want the Vineland Music Festival on part of a 500-acre farm on the southeast end of town.
Developer Pete Steenland is one of them.
"This is a rural neighborhood. It’s surrounded by houses. There are farm fields. It just does not seem like the place that they should be having a concert with an unpredictable number of people coming."
But that number will be upwards of 50,000, say organizers, on the second weekend of August.
Add to that crowd the typical summer weekend traffic and the planned opening of a giant motorsports park in nearby Millville:
"It’s also going to coincide with the grand opening of the Thunderbolt Raceway, which is just a couple of miles away, and they expect another 10- to 20-thousand people for that grand opening."
Steenland predicts what he calls a “perfect storm” of traffic -- a mess that no one consulted residents about.
His group is looking at all options, including legal, to put a stop to the show.
Vineland mayor Perry Barse says city council would have to approve any contract, and none has been signed with promoters yet. But his police chief says the force can handle things, and that’s good enough for him.
For more information from the NARCS group, send an e-mail to neighborsagainstrockconcertsite@yahoo.com.
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