Long Waiting Lines Caused Problems At We-Fest Thursday

WE-FEST OR WAH-FEST?

I'm really hoping that this isn't an omen for We-Fest in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. I have great memories from the past, attending the event, but I've also experienced another 3-Day festival that had the disastrous first-day jitters, that We Fest apparently suffered yesterday.

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TRAFFIC BACKED UP

As you can imagine, people were coming to We-Fest 2023 in droves to see performer Morgan Wallen, who has hit after hit at the top of the charts as of late. The lineup for Thursday, August 3rd show kicked off with a really strong country newcomer named Bailey Zimmerman, followed by Ernest, Chase Rice, and then the ever-popular by Morgan Wallen taking the stage at 10:30 pm.

FRAUD OR BAD LUCK?

According to ValleyNewslive.com, people are absolutely furious. First-Time We-Fest attendee Kasey Soliah said, "It's a mess. It's Crazy. It's a lot of people. It's just a total mess."

Another attendee said that the highway they were on was completely backed up. Soliah said that it was a three-hour wait to just try to get into the campgrounds. It sounds like people were parking their campers wherever they wanted to once they got into the campgrounds.  VIP ticketholders that had that spots held and planned for weeks or even months ahead of time, are now finding that they don't have a place to stay, as other campers are just parking their campers anywhere they want.

THE CAUSE OF THE BACKUP

Mark Bjerke, We-Fest Manager said that the wait was NOT because of extra security measures. In the past, people have always brought their campers the day before the event, but because of headliner Morgan Wallen, people are trying to get their campers in and that's never happened before.

WORKING WITH VIP CONCERT GOERS

He also said that We-Fest is trying to work with the VIP ticketholders that paid for camping sites and didn't receive them, and trying to get them generators for electricity. The campground was oversold accidentally due to the system telling them they had more inventory than they actually had.

The good news? People were impressed with the security. Security was thorough and made many concertgoers feel safer about attending an event of this magnitude. Since there was an issue with parking backing up traffic, they just started letting everyone in for free to get them in.

MORGAN WALLEN FOR FREE?

There were still 300 folks wanting to get in to see Morgan Wallen at showtime, and We-Fest just let them in for free at that point so they wouldn't miss the show. Did they pay for it? Yes...in a way. If they waited in traffic for three hours to see their favorite artist; They DID pay for it.