Police Working With Gorge Amphitheater Owners To Reduce Gridlock

The Grant County Sheriff's Office is now working with the owners of The Gorge Amphitheater - Live Nation - on ways to prevent gridlock on the roads surrounding the venue.

The action was prompted after hundreds of motorists who were trying to access the campground at the amphitheater in George became stuck in traffic for hours last Friday.

Grant County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Kyle Foreman says the cause of the heavy traffic, which also caused lengthy delays for many local residents, was likely the fact that Live Nation had booked two separate concerts over the same weekend.

"We're going to be strongly recommending to Live Nation that they not open up camping for two different gigs that are scheduled within two different days to try and let that many people into the site at the same time over one weekend. There simply isn't the roadway infrastructure surrounding The Gorge to be able to facilitate that kind of traffic."

Foreman adds that even though Live Nation will likely heed the sheriff's office advice, concertgoers should still plan on greater wait times to get into the venue than in previous years.

"Security is tighter out there and it's going to take longer for anyone who's trying to get into the campground. But it's all for a good reason since we don't ever want to have a repeat of what happened there when we had a mass shooting at the campground just a couple of months ago. So people need to expect the tightened security screenings to stay in tact and people going to The Gorge just need to remember that it's going to take longer."

Enhanced security measures at The Gorge went in place following a shooting at the venue's campground on June 17 that left two dead and injured three.