Pittsylvania County Administrator David Smitherman joins the show to discuss the events leading up to the Blue Ridge Rock Festival and what really happened during the four-day event. Below is a summary:
- The plans for the Blue Ridge Rock Festival were good, but they were not administered correctly. There were serious public safety risks Wednesday and Thursday due to failures in traffic management, transportation, camping, sanitation, and other areas.
- In front of many other regulatory agencies, Purpose Driven Events directly requested that Pittsylvania County take over external operations of the festival.
- Purpose Driven Events signed contracts with Danville Public Schools and Pittsylvania County Public Schools for transportation services.
- No County employees received two paychecks for working to the direct benefit of Purpose Driven Events. Off-duty professionals (including bus drivers, public safety staff, and Sheriff's deputies, for example) were compensated for their time, but were not paid as County employees.
- To this day, the promoter still has not been able to provide an accurate head count for the Blue Ridge Rock Festival.
- Based on complaints and comments by the promoter and vendors, as well as the promoter's difficulty in securing a bond, the County had legitimate concerns about collection of monies owed.