GREENFIELD — After being named a top music festival by the New York Times, Rolling Stone and USA Today, organizers of the Green River Festival have announced they will offer camping this year to keep up with the festival’s growing popularity.
According to Lynne Bertrand of Signature Sounds, which produces the festival, about 15,000 people came to the Green River Fest over three days last year. She said many attendees had to either stay with friends or sleep in their cars, so the decision was made to offer camping at the Franklin County Fairgrounds this year for tents and RVs.
“I know it’s been on our minds for a long time. It’s a standard part of a lot of festivals but this was the year it became sort of necessary,” Bertrand said. “What we’re hearing is that the hotels are already booked around the Valley.”
This year, the festival is also celebrating its 30th anniversary. It will take place July 8 to 10 at Greenfield Community College, featuring more than 30 bands on three stages as well as local food, beer and wine, a craft fair and four hot air balloon launches.
“It’s kind of a big year for us in every way, and we figured this would be a fun year to start camping,” Bertrand said.
Organizers are expecting about 500 campers and several hundred have already bought passes. The fairgrounds has more than 40 acres of flat, open camping area, including RV electric hookups and multiple bathrooms with showers. Because the space is so large, Bertrand said the number of tent spots won’t be capped, but RV spots will be limited to 30 — more than half of which have already been sold.
“One of the things we’re trying to do that other festivals have done is make sure that the campground has a great vibe,” she said. “We’ll have breakfast over there and acoustic music. We’re not going to jack up the sound, but there will be good music to listen to before they go over to the festival.”
Bertrand said campers will also be able to purchase breakfast from two vendors at the fairgrounds Saturday and Sunday — the Florence Pie Bar, which will be serving pie, coffee, scones and more, and the Bernardston Kiwanis Club, serving classic breakfast sandwiches.
Shuttle buses will bring attendees from the fairgrounds to GCC and Bertrand said there will also be a bike route from the campground to the festival. All camping passes are for the weekend, with check-in starting at noon on Friday and check-out on Monday before noon. Single-day camping passes will not be sold and there will be separate areas for family camping, premium camping and an RV area.
The cost for a weekend pass and camping is $149 while the weekend premium pass is $199.
Premium camping passes include camping locations near bathroom and shower facilities, preferred parking, free continental breakfast on Saturday and Sunday, a special gift bag and more.
For more information, visit greenriverfestival.com/camping.
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