Richmond prepared for Country Thunder weekend

RICHMOND – Used to be, downtown Richmond would become a parking lot for four days on the third weekend of July.

From 1996 through 2016, hundreds, if not thousands, of cars would back up on Route 12 on their way to Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, for the annual Country Thunder music festival.

Then, in 2017, the festival management moved its entrance gates to a Kenosha County road. The drivers no longer stacked on Richmond Road – and Route 12 through Richmond – waiting to get in.

The festival kicks off Thursday and runs through Sunday this year.

Tom Jiaras knows exactly when the festival’s entrance changed in 2016. That was the last year Jiaras, owner of Richmond’s International House of Wine and Cheese, sold 1,600 bags of ice over the weekend.

“It was as good as the week before Christmas ... 40% or 50% better than average, when it was rolling,” Jiaras said.

"It was as good as the week before Christmas ... 40% or 50% better than average, when it was rolling.”

—  International House of Wine and Cheese owner Tom Jiaras

Last summer, that number dropped to 450 bags of ice, he said.

Still, those motorists heading just 2 miles north also bring their money to the McHenry County village. They buy ice and beer, fuel, groceries, breakfast during the festival and any supply they ran out of or forgot to pack, business owners and managers said.

The Ace Hardware store is prepped and ready for the crowds. There is a selection of lawn chairs sitting on Route 12, and more in the store’s garden area, Manager Jason Chambers said.

Inside the store, he put together a display of basics people might come looking for: paper towels and toilet paper, bug spray, citronella candles, waterproof playing cards and bottled water.

It isn’t Thursday – when traffic starts rolling through town – that is the busiest for them, clerk Donovan Wichert said. “It is all the rest” after attendees get to the venue and realize they need those essentials, like coolers and bug spray, Wichert said.

The hardware store is just a stone’s throw from the Route 12-Richmond Road split, making it easy to find.

Servers at the Cubby Cafe said they hope the concert goers will find them again.

As those who camp on the festival site wake up, they often come back into Richmond to get breakfast at the Cubby. There are people that come back every year just to have breakfast there, server Kris Thurwell said.

In March, The Cubby Cafe moved to the far south end of Richmond. If those long-time customers don’t know about the move, or don’t see their sign as they head north into Wisconsin, they might think the cafe closed, Thurwell said.

The cafe’s staff said they’ve also seen crowds reduced because the concert’s entry – and exit – point changed. The Cubby and other restaurants used to double-staff as campers would wake up and decide they wanted breakfast, or decide to go get dinner if they didn’t care about the band or artist about to go on.

“It was always a record-breaking weekend,” Thurwell said.

Melissa Walter worked at the American Cafe before the Cubby and also got to know yearly regulars there.

Walter has a different experience with the traffic because she lives across the street from the old entrance, she said. If the wind is blowing right, she can hear the acts on stage without paying for a ticket.

She and other neighbors used to hunker down for the weekend because they knew getting on to Richmond Road was nearly impossible for those four days.

“All the entrances to the neighborhood were blocked by Country Thunder traffic,” Walter said, adding the roads were still busy but easier for folks to get out of their homes.

Some neighbors take advantage of the location and sell parking spots to those who don’t want to pay to park on site, said Gabrielle Cochran. Another server at the Cubby, Cochran remembers the year she got out of a friend’s car and walked the 1 ½ miles home rather than sit in traffic.

Not everyone in Richmond is as fond of the weekend and its congestion as others. One Richmond bar owner takes a vacation during the concert dates, announcing the closure on the marquee sign.

The village also has cracked down on festival goers who try to park in town and walk the 2 miles there. A temporary street parking ban runs from July 17 through July 24 for three subdivisions on the north end of Richmond.

“Parking on the street is prohibited and will be strictly enforced with tickets issued in the amount of $75.00 per vehicle, and/or vehicles towed at the owner’s expense,” according to the village website, www.richmond-il.com.

Neither has the additional traffic done wonders for places like Anderson’s Candy Shop, Katie Anderson said.

“We sell chocolates and gifts” which are not typically what people going to a concert on one of the hottest summer weekends want, she said.

But Anderson said she hopes anyone thinking about spending time and money in downtown Richmond isn’t scared away by the traffic stories.

“Before they changed the traffic pattern, there was a lot of hyperbole around the traffic” during the festival, Anderson said. “It scares people away from town and it is one of our slowest weekends all summer.”

As someone who makes money selling chocolate “I don’t want anyone to avoid Richmond,” she said.