KEARNEYSVILLE, W.Va. — The All Good Festival music festival has come to a permanent end after its 18th celebration last year.
Organizers made that announcement on the festival’s website earlier this week, but Jefferson County Sheriff Pete Dougherty said they’ve known about the cancellation for months now.
All Good was held in Jefferson County for the first time last July, and was said to have brought in over 12,000 guests.
Dougherty said that number was closer to 15,000, but that was still not a big enough attendance for the organizers, who were looking for numbers above 20,000.
Dougherty said the biggest issue aside from the low turnout was the traffic.
Because the venue, located at Summit Point, was so close to the Virginia state line, both states needed representatives involved.
He said, “When they went through this last year they had to have a certified Virginia Traffic Engineer to get the traffic plan submitted to the Virginia Department of Transportation. That delayed the process on their end which delayed the process on our end. Until VDOT decided the traffic pattern we all thought was reasonable could go into place, we couldn’t sign off and agree to do it because we wanted to make sure there was an easy way onto the site for fire, ambulances and law enforcement.”
Despite reworking the traffic patterns, Dougherty mentioned that those who lived nearby the festival said it was no problem at all, and there were minimal to no complaints of noise.
Dougherty also said that fortunately drugs were not the reason for the festival’s demise, despite the many arrests made on and off the site, and one overdose death.
“We had one guy that we ended up arresting and taking tot the hospital. He sort of got out of control and was striking at people and vehicles and that kind of stuff. He just lost where he was and what he was up to,” Dougherty explained.
He says these kinds of situations are problematic in such a large crowd because it’s hard for law enforcement to respond quickly and appropriately.
When asked if he would like to see a similar festival come back to the area, his answer was a bit mixed.
Sheriff Dougherty says that on one hand, it is nice to have an outdoor event to draw in crowds that might not be interested in the casino; however, for such a small sheriff’s department, it makes it hard for them to cover multi-day events such as these.
Organizers of All Good will be changing their focus instead to the two-day “All Good Presents” celebration, which is slated to take place July 9 and 10 at the Merriweather Post Pavilion.