Luke Bryan Farm Concert Causes Traffic Nightmare in Lexington
The troubles on Luke Bryan’s current farm tour continue.
After a few dates were postponed due to wet weather, including the scheduled concert in Lexington, KY at the Talon Winery on Thursday, October 1st, the concert finally went down Tuesday night (10-6), but with some serious hitches.
Traffic on the only two lane road leading to the winery backed up so bad, at one point the line stretched upwards of eight miles, and took five and-a-half hours for some patrons to get through. Vehicles ran out of gas, other vehicles were abandoned on the side of the road as their occupants decided to hoof it to the winery, and still other ticket holders missed the concert entirely because of the traffic snarl.
This was all despite the gates to the concert being opened at 2 p.m. to encourage people to arrive early, and advisories to attendees to make sure to leave for the concert with extra time to spare. However since the show was on a weekday, many attendees couldn’t travel to the concert until after 5 p.m., which ended up being too late for some.
Once the traffic issue became apparent, Luke Bryan delayed his start time of the concert for about an hour, until 9:30 p.m., to facilitate the arrival of more patrons. “Hey guys we know traffic is backed up. Please be patient. We’re waiting on ya,” Luke tweeted out. Still some did not make it.
And then when the concert ended, the traffic issues were even more exacerbated, with some concert goers stuck on the two-lane Tates Creek Road outside of Lexington on a weeknight until 4 a.m. in the morning.
The traffic issues also taxed the police working the event, and have some in Lexington and surrounding areas questioning how the concert was able to move forward without municipal approval, and how a similar issue can be prevented in the future. The promoters of the farm tour say they will reimburse law enforcement for officer overtime.
Promoters are also telling customers they are working on a resolution for attendees who were either inconvenienced, or unable to get to the concert, and will be informing the public of those resolutions by Monday, October 12th.
Just getting home from the #LukeBryan concert. 4 1/2 hours in traffic is a little much. Never again
misti whetsell (@misstdawn11) October 7, 2015
Extremely poor planning for #LukeBryanfarmtour. After 1.5 hrs, knew we’d miss show, turned back for home. #disappointed @LukeBryanOnline
Danielle Clore (@danielleclore) October 7, 2015
October 7, 2015 @ 7:25 pm
Brilliant planning. It’s sad when ideas like this get the green light with absolutely no common sense at play whatsoever. I believe Luke’s team should rethink this bone-headed farm tour foolishness.
October 7, 2015 @ 9:50 pm
You’re assuming they “think” in the first place..
October 7, 2015 @ 11:29 pm
Luke doesn’t like his people to analyze anything. That’s why he hired them to start with. 🙂
October 7, 2015 @ 7:50 pm
Farm tours were a quaint idea when he was starting out, but he knows by now how many turn out for his shows, and he needs to choose an acceptable venue.
October 7, 2015 @ 8:23 pm
I thought all those jacked up trucks he’s always singing about could climb right over the other cars Bigfoot style.It’s sad to see this many people stuck in traffic with the destination being a Luke Bryan concert.GEEZ!!
October 7, 2015 @ 8:41 pm
This concert should have never been allowed to be held there. This winery is on a twisting two-lane road leading from Lexington and ending at a ferry at the Kentucky River. There are few other roads connecting to it, and those are even smaller. The winery kept saying the promoter and Luke Bryan’s people knew what they were doing. Clearly, the very fact that they thought 20,000 people could get in there in five hours proves they didn’t.
October 7, 2015 @ 10:20 pm
Exactly, and that child (I say that because she looks 16 and way over her head apparently) the winery has as their spokesperson on the posted news vid is irritatingly flippant about the whole thing. It was a weeknight for Pete’s sake!! Why did anyone think this was a good idea??
October 8, 2015 @ 9:36 am
Totally towing the company line as if the truth of what happened will never come out. This attitude is what is wrong with America.
October 7, 2015 @ 9:45 pm
At least they had plenty of time to reflect upon their poor life decisions, like listening to Luke Bryan.
October 7, 2015 @ 11:22 pm
Things like this make me believe that people can be made to like anything. I don’t get why this guy gets so much attention. It’s almost like a weird religious following or something. It just blows my mind. Then I see all those artists out there that deserve way more recognition than he does and it just makes me sad. He’s probably a nice guy, but that doesn’t excuse his shitty vanilla music. Wheeew. Rant over now. 🙂
October 8, 2015 @ 5:06 am
I almost feel guilty for disliking his music so much because I’ve seen him in interviews on TV, or read about him, and he really DOES sound like such a nice guy! But his music is just so awful that I can’t help but get pissed off whenever I see him.
October 8, 2015 @ 12:42 am
….Then they got to the concert and the real nightmare began.
October 8, 2015 @ 3:03 am
I’ll never get why you “report” on this stuff. People getting drunk or sitting in traffic are a complete non story and anyone who thinks that it reflects badly on Luke Bryan is an idiot.
October 8, 2015 @ 5:14 am
Though I love to hear when Luke fails, I agree it does make this site look petty to turn this into a story. The same result would have happened if George Strait did this venue.
October 8, 2015 @ 6:08 am
George Strait would never do this kind of thing because he has good judgement and planning skills.
October 8, 2015 @ 6:29 am
Yeah because we all know artists always scout out locations before their management and promoters book dates.
The blame really doesn’t lie on the artist here no matter how much you or I may want it to.
An ambitious concert promoter is to blame for booking this gig.
As I said, same thing could’ve happened to most any past or present headliner in country music.
October 8, 2015 @ 7:09 am
That isn’t necessarily what I meant. George Strait does massive arena tours in some of the most famous concert halls, and let’s be fair, most artists don’t play out in the middle of nowhere with only one road to the concert.
October 8, 2015 @ 8:24 am
He takes pettiness to a new level. I’ll never understand how he thinks people getting drunk at concerts, leaving trash at concerts, getting raped at concerts, or sitting in traffic in concerts, reflects badly on the artists performing at the concerts. It’s a complete non-story to a blog that is supposed to be about promoting traditional country music. Kyle is doing no one any favors by posting stuff like this. It’s just feeding in to the stereotype that traditional country fans are “old farts and jackasses”.
If you think some debauchery didn’t happen at a Cash, Willie, or Merle show then you’re either naive or you’re listening to the wrong genre.
October 8, 2015 @ 8:53 am
I like to think that nobody got raped at a Haggard show. Although I was reading yesterday that a woman going home from a Jones concert had been to his bus, he’d been the last person to see her alive, and she’d been found dead, and that the George Jones camp had been implicated. BUT I can’t see a George Jones fan getting found dead in a dumpster or leaving mountains of trash everywhere, and I certainly can’t see a Cash fan doing these things, and ironically during their early careers Cash and Jones were terrible role models, and we admire them now after they fixed their lives and told everybody NOT to do what they did. Luke Bryan is almost forty, I think if he was going to grow up he’d have done it by now.
October 8, 2015 @ 9:10 am
It’s pointless to even be bringing up the topic though. The traditional genre stars are no more accountable for their fans actions than the ones who are stars in the genre today. If you want to trash Luke Bryan, do it because of the shitty music he makes, not because of him causing a traffic jam.
October 8, 2015 @ 9:44 am
He didn’t cause the traffic jam, in fact he tried starting late so more people could show up, that’s a pretty decent thing to do. BUT he’s totally accountable for his fans’ actions. If he didn’t sing songs that objectify women and promote being totally wild and out of control at the expense of civility and decency then his fans would probably act more like adults. That’s why they sit still at a Bela Fleck show or a Scythian show. The fans feed off his energy and attitude, just like mob mentality, it isn’t his fault because that’s just human nature BUT if he’s going to fuel that fire he should be held partly responsible… Although the WORST concert man in Country Music remains George Jones. The Possum would get a pair of Bermuda shorts and strut around behind Buck Owens during a set to distract the audience, he’s demand to be introduced first as Hank Williams, then as Johnny Horton, and he’d disappear in the middle of a show, and the audiences would riot and make at least as big a mess as they do when Luke Bryan is around.
October 8, 2015 @ 9:45 am
Coty,
Frankly, you’re making a wild-eyed assumption that the reason I’m posting these stories is to somehow attack Luke Bryan, or any of the other people these stories are about. The reason I’m posting it is because it’s news. Yesterday, the same day I posted this story, I posted a story about a woman getting murdered at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, and another being assaulted in a similar incident:
https://savingcountrymusic.com/death-at-hardly-strictly-bluegrass-festival-ruled-a-homicide-second-similar-attack-reported
I’ve posted stories about issues at small underground festivals, and SXSW, and other festivals that cater to the music I supposedly “like.” I posted stories about Stoney LaRue assaulting his girlfriend, about Justin Townes Earle losing his shit and tearing up a dressing room. The idea I’m selectively reporting based on my musical tastes, or have an agenda against these artists is ridiculous.
There’s one reason and one reason only that I am reporting these stories: It’s news.
And because I received about a dozen emails yesterday from folks goading me to report on it. If you don’t want to read it, don’t read it. I’ve never picked up a newspaper and found every single article appealing.
October 8, 2015 @ 5:18 am
People had to sit in traffic waaahhh. Oh the horror. Luke Bryan can hold a show where ever he wants and if you and 10,000 of your closest dumbass friends want to go down a backroad to see him, you forfeit your right to complain about the traffic.
The winery, or farm, or whatever has every right to hold a Luke Bryan concert and you as a fan have every right to get stuck in traffic for a few hours if you decide to go.
October 8, 2015 @ 6:09 am
This raises an interesting question: if Luke Bryan falls off the stage, and half the audience isn’t there to hear it, is he still awful?
October 8, 2015 @ 6:21 am
Between this and the annual bataan death march that is the Kentucky Sprint Cup race. I’d say it’s safe to say that the KY Highway Patrol has no clue how to handle large events.
October 8, 2015 @ 8:29 am
That’s a big 10-4 as far as the race is concerned! I went last year and sat in the parking lot after the race for 2 hours before I even moved then it was another hour and a half before I got to 71. That was ridiculous but there is only one exit off 71 so I should’ve expected it.
October 8, 2015 @ 9:02 am
Dang you Buck, I was going to use this one, lol, I feel for the young people who missed the show, most likely planned on this show for some time.
October 8, 2015 @ 7:18 am
Wait a sec . . . Let’s not jump to conclusions. Which way were they going? Maybe they had good taste and they were fleeing!
October 8, 2015 @ 8:16 am
I think Luke is a good guy even if his music sucks. What makes me the most mad about him is that I know that he knows better.
The people who like his music are the same people who live their lives on Facebook and that are mixed in with whatever the cultures is doing. They go to these shows not because of music but because it’s the popular and cool thing to do. Most of them don’t remember the show because they are to busy doing Facebook updates about being at the concert. Heck all the girls are even dressed the same. And for the most part the guys hate the music but they rack in the brownie points by taking the girls to see the “cute” Luke Bryan.
October 8, 2015 @ 8:19 am
I can say, from living near Lexington, that several people used the bathroom in clear daylight. On the side of the road. No cover,no nothing. Dowright classless. What do you expect from luke fans though?
October 8, 2015 @ 8:54 am
You know, it’s funny. I’ve been to concerts for all genres of music; country, punk, Latin, R&B, hip hop, pop, etc… I swear the strangest people I’ve seen at concerts tend to be at country shows. I know I’m just basing this on what I’ve personally seen, and others have experienced different things, but in my experience mainstream country shows have the most weirdos.
It certainly doesn’t help that people drink the most at country shows.
October 8, 2015 @ 9:16 am
Yeah, I blame a lot of that on the audience that Country music attracts. Obviously you have the bro-Country dudes and ladies, but you also have a crap ton of working-class parents and such that throw a crap ton of their budget to go to one of these shows and treat it like they have to go 1000% to justify the ticket price.
The same crap is happening at more and more NFL games, between the target audience and the ticket prices you attract a lot of people who are just morons about how to act and behave and feel that buying an expensive ticket to an event justifies their actions.
October 8, 2015 @ 9:36 am
Think happened in Oakland with U2 not that long ago. The traffic hit at Rush Hour and some people never even made it the concert they paid for. Because the parking lot supposedly wasn’t big enough.
October 8, 2015 @ 2:40 pm
The exact thing happened in San Francisco last year with Paul McCartney’s concert. I was part of it and felt ripped off because of all of the money that was spent on purchasing the tickets. I remember there being this guy walking to cars and saying “No more general admission parking is here. I can’t tell you where to park. They just sent me out here.” I ended up sending a complaint to the promoters and yeah, we ended up getting three *better* seats to Willie Nelson’s concert in Berkeley that happened the following year. I liked his concert, but nothing could make up for the nightmare that had happened that night. Scary stuff.
October 8, 2015 @ 3:01 pm
Serves them right for listening to such utter trash!
October 8, 2015 @ 3:45 pm
A lot of these mid size venues of an outdoor setting are in the middle of nowhere or in between two bigger cities to attract the biggest possible audience. We have one venue I will rarely go to unless someone drive that’s a live nation venue about an hour away. Same thing it’s always an hour to get in maybe or more and up to 3-4 hours to get out. It was free parking but this past year did add $20, and $50 parking areas to get out first to the exit. Leaving is always roadside sobriety checkpoints. Usually a pretty rowdy place with many arrests and fights. Some folks I know will drive to another venue 3.5 hours away and can make it home in the same time as if they went to a closer one.
October 8, 2015 @ 3:53 pm
You should see the cluster fuck around Raleigh when the state fair is in town,NC State has a football game & the Hurricanes are at home.
October 8, 2015 @ 8:16 pm
Reading this it kinda makes me think how Garth’s Central Park concert was probably more controlled than this
October 9, 2015 @ 9:59 am
There should be better planning but this is bad planning. Not Luke Bryan but the promoters should make better decisions next time.
October 9, 2015 @ 10:17 am
Nascar sprint cup race in Kentucky few years ago? traffic problems