Eager concertgoers line up for miles in Zephyrhills to attend "The Greatest Show on Dirt," in its 14th season.
By ANNE BROACHE
Published April 24, 2004
ZEPHYRHILLS - It's billed as "The Greatest Show on Dirt," and the dust already is flying.
It floats up from the trucks, cars and RVs that creep along the sloped, grassy shoulder on U.S. 301. Spilling with eager concertgoers and their assorted survival gear, the vehicles are lined up for miles north and south of the 250-acre Festival Park.
They're here for Livestock 14, and not the herds of black-and-white cows that graze on adjacent farms.
We're talking the hard-rockin', high-voltage partying breed, put on by Tampa radio station WXTB-FM 97.9 (98 Rock), now in its 14th season.
The line to the park started forming Thursday morning, even though the first band, 10 Second Drop, wasn't scheduled to come on until 7 p.m. Friday.
The gates opened at 10 a.m. Friday. As the line began to snake forward, travelers perched on car hoods and truck beds, doors and windows open. Music and periodic cheers and honks pierced the air.
Some drove plush, rented RVs with showers. Some rode in pickups weighed down with firewood, tents and coolers. Others chose zebra-striped Volkswagen buses, cow-spotted trucks or mammoth trailers.
Some sported signs urging nudity. And they towed things - portable potties, even old furniture. Turns out burning things is a big pastime in the campground where most of the expected 15,000 concertgoers will make their home this weekend.
"We have a table we're going to burn," said Courtney Mathes, a 24-year-old nurse from Sarasota.
Mathes and her boyfriend had been in line since about 5 a.m. Friday for their first Livestock.
"We have air mattresses; we're going to take showers with 2-liter bottles" she said, her voice rising with excitement. "We're going to have such a good time."
Further up the line, a shirtless Dennis Derouin, 35, sported a score of multicolored beaded strings, one of Livestock's signature accessories. He and his near-sleepless entourage of Livestock veterans arrived from St. Petersburg about 2 a.m. Friday.
"We had a nice bonfire out here last night," said Derouin, a tournament spearfisher from St. Petersburg.
His pals said this time they're excited to see The Offspring, who will provide the grand finale tonight.
A cooler in his truckbed was stocked with all the group's favorites.
"I drink Gatorade during the day and liquor at night," said Josh Maddox, 27, a friend of Derouin's and fellow spearfisher.
But as far as Livestocks go, this one seemed relatively calm to many officials and onlookers.
As of Friday afternoon, Pasco County Fire Rescue officials reported no major incidents.
Sheriff's Lt. Joe Frontz said his officers had kicked out two patrons up to that point - about average, compared with previous years.
"I've seen them rowdier," Frontz said.
Frontz was in charge of deputies inside the park's grounds. Two officers were assigned to direct traffic on U.S. 301. A mobile unit for booking arrests was set up across the street at the Zephyrhills Correctional Institute.
Sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll said about 90 off-duty deputies were working the event during the weekend.
"The promoter pays for them being out there," Doll said. "It's not taxpayers' money."
And, as in previous years, the Tropical Acres Estates mobile home community across U.S. 301 was supplying its own security force. Their mission: to keep errant concertgoers from trespassing. Four residents, assigned to two-hour shifts, sat guard in lawn chairs at the community's entrance. More stopped by intermittently to ogle the procession.
They've even come up with a motto.
"We're too young for Woodstock and too old for Livestock," said Kathy Cornell, who splits her time between this area and Michigan. She usually returns north before the Livestock weekend. But this year, she said, she wanted to see what it was like.
She hadn't encountered any disturbances yet, "though I heard that you will really hear it when the music starts," she said.
"Especially if the wind is right," said resident Diane Rosengren, who has experienced three Livestocks. But she isn't complaining - she likes the music, she said.
The Sheriff's Office reported making more than a dozen arrests Thursday night, nearly all of them drug-related. Marijuana was the most common drug confiscated, though cocaine, Ecstasy and unauthorized prescription drugs also were discovered.
And there are always exceptions.
Peter Sanders, 24, who came from Tampa in a "three-car convoy" of friends, said he doesn't drink alcohol or do drugs. "I like to have a fun time, and I like to remember it," said the first-time Livestock attendee said.
He had a different plan in mind. Equipped with hundreds of strands of beads and his Polaroid camera, he hopes the women will respond.
"I only get to be a pervert once a year," he said.
