What began as a celebration about the rerouting of a bustling highway out of a tiny town has grown into a festival so large the planners worry there will be too many people.
Waverly, which normally has a population of 184, grows exponentially during the Old 280 Boogie Music and Arts Festival held every spring.
During the 2010 Boogie, Carolyn Stubbs, lifelong resident of Waverly and previous Boogie planning committee member, estimates 3,000-4,000 people packed the tiny town's 2.7 square miles.
Because of the event's rapid growth and mounting safety concerns, there will be a limit on the number of attendees allowed inside the gated event, and a $10 entrance fee will be collected.
Parking attendants will make parking more organized, and the entire Boogie will be on the property of Standard Deluxe, a screen-printing and T-shirt shop, instead of spread throughout the town as in years past.
"We're considering now that it's all on our property, and we have gates, we're kinda thinking since we're charging admission that it's going to cut back on people going," said Scott Peek, owner of Standard Deluxe and planner of the event. "What we want to do is not growing it to make it bigger, but to take some of the funds from this year and put it to next year to bring bigger bands--limit attendees and get a little bigger talent."
Stubbs said another reason for the changes was the workload it placed on the 10-15 volunteers who run the event.
"You just get that many people, and that handful of volunteers just can't handle it," Stubbs said. "It became a big event with really just volunteers running it, so something had to change, and I think everybody felt that way."
Stubbs said she isn't surprised about the popularity of the event--a problem that's good to have for the community.
"Waverly needs this injection of life," Stubbs said. "It translates into tax dollars and money to do other things and to maintain the town. You have to have life, or you don't have a town. I mean, all you have is a bedroom community or a subdivision if you don't have some activity."
Stubbs said the event will be more professional and organized this year, but the Waverly City Council is no longer involved.
However, Stubbs said the town will still benefit from the Boogie.
"The town will get revenue from it because the vendors will have to have a business license, and Standard Deluxe is a business, so any profit they make will translate into tax of some sort."
At the beginning, Stubbs said the festival was mostly a town reunion gathering, but as word spread, the 280 Boogie grew to include Auburn students and alumni as well as people from farther away.
"Things change, and when an event changes and gets bigger or whatever, you just have to accommodate to make sure everybody's safe and make some adjustments when what you're working with changes," Stubbs said.
"It's just time for something different. And honestly, a 10-year run on something like that is good. A lot of festivals don't last that long."
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