Student Bonfire has now had multiple years in a row with Burn night logistical failure. How much longer does this continue before proactive measures are taken to make sure such large numbers aren't turned away on Burn night?

For the record, I am a huge supporter of SB and worked on it for 3 years while I was at A&M. I would certainly think that after this has happened for multiple years, that actions would be taken to make these worst case scenarios a little more positive.

Agreed.

Made WTAW.

a fire was built, lit, and friends were made = success.

bonfire as an event = failure.

sheesh. glad i didn't make the drive all the way from austin. i wouldn't have gotten to town until about 6:30 or 7:00. i would have been TICKED to have driven that far and been turned away. that would make me less likely to try in subsequent years if there are always pakring problems. seems like that would be keeping a lot of out-of-towners from attending. no one wants to drive that far only to be turned away.

Square, I totally agree with you that SB as a whole has been a success.

I am simply saying that if these logistical nightmares continue to happen year after year, Student Bonfire will eventually pay for it in some way shape or form. At the very least, its a piece of bad publicity that it takes every year. How much longer and what has to go majorly wrong before somebody at the top (Reds maybe) do something to change it. Hell, not even change it... at this point some amount of improvement would be refreshing.

you and I are on the same page richie...I don't think they have what it takes to address the problem, that or they simply don't care to.

One of my thoughts/fears all along was the student bonfire was always more concerned with it being their deal, their fire, their event and not so much Aggie Bonfire. When **** like this happens, year after year, it only fuels that argument.

As I said on the other thread, the police were turning people away when the main road got clogged. But all you had to do is U-turn and come back. We got turned away the first time, and the second time we were rerouted to a secondary road. Made Bonfire in plenty enough time.

The mud sure made interesting for the people that got in. Also, people need to learn patience. If there is a line, just sit and wait in it. We saw people drive around the line and make a huge bottle neck. Combine that with the mud and it was a disaster.

I think it was a complete success there is no way to get more cars in there, if you left too late it is your own fault.


My friend left late and knew it and we got turned away by the police at old hearne road so we found a legal place to park, pedestrians were being turned away so we went around walked the mile or so and made it, awesome night.

Don't get pissy at the organizers because you are too lazy to make it on time.

I think it was a complete success there is no way to get more cars in there, if you left too late it is your own fault.


My friend left late and knew it and we got turned away by the police at old hearne road so we found a legal place to park, pedestrians were being turned away so we went around walked the mile or so and made it, awesome night.

Don't get pissy at the organizers because you are too lazy to make it on time.

maybe the City of CS or even Texas A&M will take note that enough people to clog 6 from OSR to past University after 200 acres of parking (minus a bit for mud) is full want Aggie Bonfire.

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sheesh. glad i didn't make the drive all the way from austin. i wouldn't have gotten to town until about 6:30 or 7:00. i would have been TICKED to have driven that far and been turned away. that would make me less likely to try in subsequent years if there are always pakring problems. seems like that would be keeping a lot of out-of-towners from attending. no one wants to drive that far only to be turned away.

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Just a quick note here... Back when Bonfire burned ON CAMPUS, if you didn't get into town "until about 6:30 or 7:00" you would have had to get REAL lucky to find parking anywhere NEAR campus and then either find a ride or, since traffic was basically at a standstill at that point, walk to campus. Depending on how far away you had to park, you may not have made it in time to see Bonfire get lit.

Keep this in perspective, people. There will be many that plan ahead and get there early. There will be those who arrive too late. Those who arrive too late will either decide to never attend again, or they will decide to arrive earlier the next year.

Life goes on. And, Bonfire will ALWAYS attract a large crowd. Attendees should plan accordingly.

We left Houston at 5, made it out to site right at 7 and had plenty of time to watch bonfire burn! A complete success for me!

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Back when Bonfire burned ON CAMPUS, if you didn't get into town "until about 6:30 or 7:00" you would have had to get REAL lucky to find parking anywhere NEAR campus and then either find a ride or, since traffic was basically at a standstill at that point, walk to campus. Depending on how far away you had to park, you may not have made it in time to see Bonfire get lit.

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not true. Bonfire '98 we got there about 30 minutes before it was lit. didn't have a problem finding parking somewhere on campus.

Absolutely true! (for me)

The 1998 Bonfire, in particular... it took us over an hour to walk to campus (I lived off-campus that year). That was after driving around for about hour in ever-expanding concentric circles (while enduring the stop-and-go traffic) looking for a place to park as close to campus as possible.

If I had arrived in town at 7:00, I would not have made it to the stack until after 9 - if I made it at all (I understand that Hwy 6 was a parking lot of its own that night).

But, different people take different routes and get lucky in different ways (accidents, parking, traffic, carpools, etc...). For last night's Bonfire, it seems that there were people who got turned away, and then people who showed up after them, that just took a different route and got in no problem!

The point is that Bonfire (ON CAMPUS before, and off-campus now) will attract large crowds, but will host limited parking and major traffic. People just have to plan ahead! The logistical problems being encountered now are definitely not new to Student Bonfire.

They didn't stop people from attending Bonfire before, and they won't stop people from attending Bonfire now!

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I don't think they have what it takes to address the problem, that or they simply don't care to

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How is this even a fair evaluation? Or logical? The response to overcrowding last year was not to hire more buses but completely change sites to a location that did not necessitate standing in a bus line. That was an attempt (and in my opinion success) to solve or at least better the problem. Obviously they care about fixing this stuff. I heard a guy directing traffic tonight yell to others to move cars around one that was stuck in the mud because "if we don't get cars in we don't get paid!" It's crude and some would say goes against the spirit of the event, but dead on. SB is very much a business and has to worry about the bottom line.

They did as good a job as was possible with some weather-beaten terrain and a massive influx of people in the last hour before lighting. Campus experiences traffic issues like this on gamedays, every street becomes a bottleneck when capacity is maxed. You just can't have a standing parking lot on a state highway for two miles for a private function.

Nobody was ever told to go back home on game day or for Bonfire back in the day.

You guys seriously need to start considering purchasing your own site that you can slowly develop over time to accomodate more people. SB interest is steadily growing, and if you want to maintain that growth something needs to be done.

Also, is there a reason why shuttles weren't available? They have been there in the past.

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They did as good a job as was possible with some weather-beaten terrain and a massive influx of people in the last hour before lighting.

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While I tend to think you're right given those constraints, I think if there was a more pro active stance taken from the get-go they could have been mitigated even further.

I don't know when the site was acquired, but as soon as one is (and even during the evaluation process), a team should be working on burn night logistics.

To pro actively address weather beaten terrain the site could have more preparation done and additional ingress and egress points added. For the late influx of people, have a more involved event program that encourages early arrival. Even given the site used last night, those issues could be pro actively solved given a few months of advance time and some focused attention.

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You guys seriously need to start considering purchasing your own site that you can slowly develop over time to accomodate more people. SB interest is steadily growing, and if you want to maintain that growth something needs to be done.

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They are. It's not like it's cheap, or that land that would be good for SB is easy to find. In fact if last night shows anything, it's hard to find, because you have to find land that is huge to accommodate the parking need, flat, not too far from campus, not too far from a main road to reduce the inevitable bottleneck, etc. It takes time.

I did not mean to insinuate that I didn't think it would take time, but it might help if those efforts were regularly communicated to your target audience so they knew that the issues are being addressed.

I think the largest problem here is that the planning is being handled by students that lack real world experience. As soon as someone starts to get a little experience, they graduate.

One suggestion I have is to listen to people who offer constructive feedback, and ignore those who simply complain. Don't fire back at people to plan ahead because that is only going to make things worse from an organizational image standpoint.



[This message has been edited by TinkleBox (edited 11/25/2009 12:03p).]

would it be possible to sell parking permits first if you want to park on site? and then if you don't get a permit, you are required to take one of the buses to the site?

Acquiring land for a permanent home has a number of under-the-radar side effects. It's expensive, hard to find, adds taxes to the yearly budget, and perhaps most importantly it gives a sense of finality to the issue. It would cement Student Bonfire's separation from the University for the forseeable future. While I personally hold that Bonfire will burn for Aggies everywhere regardless of whether it's on campus or not, the organization may not be ready to take that big of a step just yet.

Some good points coop. Question tho, would you know if there's anything in the works to have a registered student org to act as an intermediary between SB & doing stuff on campus (putting up flyers/getting meeting rooms/etc)? If theres interest I may be able to help.

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Question tho, would you know if there's anything in the works to have a registered student org to act as an intermediary between SB & doing stuff on campus (putting up flyers/getting meeting rooms/etc)?

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I highly doubt that.

Bonfire Coalition for Students

the FAQ, expecially #7 and #10 (combined with the fact that BCS is defunct) explain it all...

The university doesn't want to have ANYTHING to do with Student Bonfire.

...the good news is... if/when Texas A&M is looking for bids on building Bonfire... I do believe that Student Bonfire can place the lowest bid.

Yah, BCS couldn't keep membership up and was axed last year or the year before. It was always amusing to me that they couldn't see Student Bonfire as Bonfire… kinda missing the forest for the trees. It seems like they tried to feed people the same line of bs that Traditions Council has to.

Now, if I read the FAQ 7 correctly (and read into a little) it seems like the only way the organization was allowed to form was with the understanding that they would not go contra to the university held position of 'no comment' until pending litigation between tamu and the several families was resolved. My timing may be off on that, but the organization did dissolve before the two parties settled last year. That was the end of direct litigation, but as it stands now, A&M may become (has become?) a third party litigant to the Zachary engineering company, liable for some arbitrary percentage of the damages that will likely be awarded. How or if that affects official policy I've yet to see.

At any rate, if it were possible (because the legal environment is 'different'), could it be worth it to try and reactivate BCS with SB participants as the organizational directors? Or have another org. that people in SB are friendly with and that could pass along perks or act as the vehicle for unofficial dialogue between tamu & sb should the day for 'official talks' ever come.

SB looks to be doing pretty damn well right now, I'm just tossing out ideas of what a potential next-step could be to grow the number of participants/spectators next year. Advertising on campus would help. If somebody can put up a piece of paper telling me about ABC band performing or asking me to join XYZ organization, why can't I put up one asking if people wan't to hang out in some dude's woods during the weekend? Because my cause isn't registered with A&M and that's it.

[This message has been edited by Fitch 10 (edited 11/28/2009 4:39a).]

Haven't heard of anything like that.

Fitch, you missed the flier war of '06...

There was a crew that printed thousands and thousands of fliers, and put them up all over campus.

They'd get taken down, but quickly replaced until one day, nobody took them down anymore.

That sounds like it took a lot of casualties.

Whatever happened to sidewalk chalking? That seemed to be the preferred way to advertise back in 2002.

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sheesh. glad i didn't make the drive all the way from austin. i wouldn't have gotten to town until about 6:30 or 7:00. i would have been TICKED to have driven that far and been turned away. that would make me less likely to try in subsequent years if there are always pakring problems. seems like that would be keeping a lot of out-of-towners from attending. no one wants to drive that far only to be turned away.

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I left New Braunfels after 5, pulled up to Bonfire at about 7:30, and got in without a problem.

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If somebody can put up a piece of paper telling me about ABC band performing or asking me to join XYZ organization, why can't I put up one asking if people wan't to hang out in some dude's woods during the weekend? Because my cause isn't registered with A&M and that's it.

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Interestingly, I don't recall A&M making a big deal about non-university-authorized activities being "risky" until, oh, 2002 or so.