Hi - this is our first time coming to Rockygrass and we have camping and vehicle passes for the Laverne Johnson Meadow Campground. The website says we need to line up at 6am on Wednesday morning and I have a few questions: (1) where does the line start, i.e. where do we need to be at 6am on Wednesday the 27th? (2) is it absolutely necessary to get there right at 6am to get a good camping spot? (3) what happens for the time while we are in line, i.e. could I take my kids into Denver or something to go see some of the sites or do we need to mostly stay in Lyons near our vehicle? and (4) when do they actually let us into the meadow to set up camp?
I can tell you what happened at Folks Fest last year at LaVern. There were two lines, a car line and a walk-in pedestrian line. The car line starts on the main drive, Railroad Avenue along the right hand side fence, maybe 20 vehicles can line up until the gate opens. Staff will bring in cars in small groups in order of who is closest to the gate. This is also done for safety as the vehicle pass folks are also backing into those diagonal parking spaces, especially if they are pulling a pop-up trailer. Folks that are unloading for tent camping are also brought in to unload at the “drop off only” round about.
The pedestrian line was maybe 40 folks deep forming along the gravel sidewalk parallel to Railroad Ave. Most had chairs and a land rush tarp if they were tent camping only. When the gate opened, both tent only campers and the first batch of vehicle campers were permitted in. We jumpfrogged any unattended vehicles in line, there were several.
For Folks last year, I got into the vehicle line an hour before gates and was maybe 15 cars back, a third of those were pulling a trailer. It will be (much) busier for RockyGrass. Tent only campers were permitted to park in the parking lot and take a place in the walk-in line. I know staff were checking for the vehicle pass pdf or print out before the gates open.
The shaded treed areas will be the first to go nearest the river, these are in the family “quiet zone”. The open field are the last spots to go, a shade canopy is recommended if it’s a sunny festival weekend.
Denver is an hour away from Lyons so I don’t believe you want to drive to Denver while your vehicle waits in line.
This is a very popular festival, we create our load in policies for our campsites to manage the festivarians poring into the town. I think you’ll find the morning quite exciting and the hours you’ll be waiting will pass by quickly.