The third Annual July 20-22 Auto Fair is already going to be bigger and better than last years, as the crew in Beckley have already moved the concert to a larger field for Lonestar and Taylor Made. See below Beckley Register-Herald article below.
Please contact Jay Rist at the Raleigh County YMCA (304-252-0715) if you can support the event with platinum, gold sponsorships.
Friends of Coal concert moving to larger fields
Beckley Register-Herald - Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Beckley-Raleigh County YMCA CEO Jim Gilchrist says the anticipated turnout for the July 21 Friends of Coal Auto Fair concert, which will feature country music sensation Lonestar with local favorite Taylor Made, is rapidly increasing, so much so that event coordinators have decided to go to “Plan B.”
The new plan, Gilchrist said Tuesday morning at a meeting involving emergency agencies, calls for the concert, which will take place at the Y’s Paul Cline Memorial Sports Complex, to move from the single field on which last year’s concert was held to two other fields at the complex.
“It will accommodate the stage better,” Gilchrist said. “Folks will be able to hear no matter where they are. We think this will be better for the people coming to the concert.”
With the change in concert location, comes additional logistical changes, Gilchrist told representatives from the West Virginia State Police, Civil Air Patrol, Beckley Fire Department, Raleigh County Community Action Association, Jan-Care Ambulance and the Raleigh County Emergency Operations Center.
Locations for VIP parking have been moved this year in order to accommodate the concert stage as well as transportation for event-goers.
In 2006, Gilchrist says six buses from Raleigh County Community Action Association bused attendees from various parking locations to the sports complex. This year, Gilchrist says, 16 buses will be in action.
Those buses will, for free, pick up fair-goers from different parking lots and drop each off the main gate.
All buses, Gilchrist says, will travel, in one direction, around the road circling the complex.
“Buses will go in one way and drop them (attendees) off at the gate,” Gilchrist said, adding there will be one way in and one way out, easing traffic problems. “Logistically, it will make things a lot better.”
Gilchrist said he is confident the changes made from last year’s event will help improve this year’s fair, which runs July 20-22.
“We’ve got the experts here,” Gilchrist said. “We’ve got all the agencies who do these things all the time. This is their livelihood.”
The planning group will meet every two weeks until the Friends of Coal Auto Fair.