Does the fact that thousands were turned away automatically make burn a failure, or can it still be considered a success?

Burn is a success. Another year where the "rebel students" at A&M build a safe Bonfire on a shoestring budget.

However, this group continues to not learn from their failures in queue management. They need to make a change in this regard.

We will not be denied!!!!

Give us room!!!

[This message has been edited by jsdaltxag (edited 11/24/2009 9:47p).]

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However, this group continues to not learn from their failures in queue management.

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I don't get why the reds are still in charge of that aspect. It's long past time that they had dedicated people to deal with such issues.

NoAC - Keegan and I say that each year. The reds are damned good at this Bonfire...but the event planning is a totally different animal.

It needs to be a totally separate entity. A well run event will add substantial revenue (even after paying said entity) and legitimacy.

shouldn't be in a situation where they're turning people away...

You could do it without needing to involve professionals. There are plenty of students that get jazzed about solving problems just like these. With the music festival (not comparable in size, but with similar logistics problems) things didn't go into the crapper until the "professionals" started making decisions that had previously been volunteered.

There are bound to be 4-5 people that want to help and have the know how.

should get in touch with the people that started chilifest to see how they do things.

I think it's past that point, N. People are now so discouraged that they won't even try to come out. SB doing their own planning, even with a dedicated group, won't gain pre-fire legitimacy.

An outside group, however, could bring that legitimacy and put on a proactive PR front.

From my reckoning there were easily twice as many people in attendance as in the past several years, so on that front one could defensibly argue that this year was a success. However, the fact that a significant number of people were turned away by local authorities does, unfortunately, reflect negatively on the organization. This is lamentable, yet I am not quick to blame the organization provided they are doing the best they can with the resources available and strive to improve each year. While I understand how many people may view this as a logistical failure, I have yet to see anyone explain exactly what the failings are, i.e. some way that it could have been handled better. The simple truth is that the roads into a rural site can only accommodate so many cars at a time, and that is the limiting factor and hence why SB asks people to arrive early so as to more evenly distribute the traffic. Unfortunately, it seems as if every year the vast majority of people wait until close to the designated burn time to actually make the trek out to the site, and this leads to the bottlenecking. If anyone has a workable solution for overcoming that factor, I am sure that the SB leaders would welcome the suggestions, but I would not so quickly dismiss their efforts as long as they are doing the best that they can and continually strive to improve.

I live in Dallas and did not make it out, but here a couple of thoughts I had, based on what I have been reading.

#1-the fact that there are enough people to turn away, in itself, means it is a success to me.

#2-I'm not really sure why cops were turning people away? If people were willing to wait in the traffic, would there have been a place to park? I wonder if the cops were trying not to be helpful, but rather a deterent? On another thread, someone said they tried a couple of different routes, wound up coming in a different way and was allowed in, after previously being turned away. Why? If there was room to park, then there was room to park no matter how you got in. I guess I am questioning the intention of the police.

[This message has been edited by 5aggies (edited 11/25/2009 10:34a).]

[This message has been edited by 5aggies (edited 11/25/2009 10:34a).]

The problem was that Hwy. 6 was jammed all the way back to 2818. From what I understand the police were most concerned with clearing that up. Perhaps some lighted signs instructing bonfire traffic to stay in the right lane could keep the flow going. However, chances are enough jackholes would try to cut and merge in that the hwy would be blocked anyway.

It's not the Reds fault that cops were turning people away. The Reds moved sight closer to campus, with way more parking available than in the past, but it was still not big enough to hold the masses of people that showed up. It wasn't their fault that so many people came they couldn't possibly park them all. I wish we didn't have to turn anyone away, but frankly, at an off campus bonfire, it will always be hard to find parking for everyone. The on campus bonfires were lucky in that regard, because the parking was already readily available.

anyone want to donate a parking garage to SB?


The way I see it... If traffic was actually backed up as far as I heard, heads will be turning.

In the past, we had traffic backed up down a 2-lane FM road...

Last night, I was told traffic was at a standstill from OSR to South 2818...

If nothing else, the mass of traffic of people wanting to come out cannot be hidden anymore.