This year, a new festival was held on the TRF grounds. Middlelands—a multiday electronic dance music festival—debuted in Todd Mission in early May, attracting 66,000 guests, according to a statement from Middlelands production company Insomniac.
However, Travis Bryant, director of marketing and public relations for the TRF, said the event was met with concerns from local residents about the volume of the music, the late-night performances and the high number of festival-related arrests. Bryant said the TRF values its relationship with the community, and as a result, there are no plans for Middlelands or any other festivals to return to the Todd Mission grounds during the TRF off-season for the foreseeable future.
“The basic takeaway for us is that we just need to focus on what we do best, which is creating this magical world that exists in another time for the people of the Houston area for nine weekends every year,” Bryant said.
Counting kings and queens[/caption]Growing pains
Despite concerns from residents, Middlelands was well-received by attendees, Insomniac founder and CEO Pasquale Rotella said in a statement.
“[I am] happy to say we received an incredible amount of positive feedback and support from attendees and many local businesses,” Rotella said. “We did experience some issues with sound complaints in the community, but these are not problems that are isolated to our shows. These are normal growing pains for any first-time festival ... and there are always solutions.”
However, Grimes County Sheriff Don Sowell said his staff was not prepared for the large number of festivalgoers and the community ramifications of a crowd that size. The department made about 40 drug-related arrests tied to the festival, Sowell said.
“We were not in the loop of what the scope of this whole big thing was going to be to prepare for,” he said.
To address concerns voiced by residents after the festival, Middlelands and TRF staff planned a joint town hall meeting in Magnolia for community members to attend. However, the May 18 event was canceled a few hours before it was scheduled to begin.
The next day, TRF officials issued a statement announcing they would not host Middlelands in 2018.
Mitigating traffic
While Middlelands will not be back in Todd Mission, the TRF returns Sept. 30, driving vehicle traffic and an expected 600,000 visitors through the area throughout the season.
Despite traffic concerns, the festival is expanding to nine weekends for the first time this year. As a result, Bryant said he believes the additional weekend could create less concentrated traffic.
“We want as many people to come and enjoy it as possible, but if we have a high amount of people coming on any particular day, it creates challenges for traffic and just the comfort of people within the park,” Bryant said.
With road construction ongoing in Magnolia and festival attendance growing, there is no immediate solution for improving local mobility during the festival, Montgomery County Precinct 2 Commissioner Charlie Riley said. However, once construction projects on FM 1774 and the Tomball Tollway extension through Montgomery County are completed, he said mobility should improve greatly in and around Magnolia.
“Unfortunately, I don’t see anything that’s going to be immediate relief for the traffic congestion this year,” Riley said. “Of course, the overpass at [FM] 1774 will help tremendously, but that will be next year as well as the [widening] construction of [FM] 1774.”
The Texas Department of Transportation’s overpass project at FM 1774 from FM 1488 north to FM 1486 will provide drivers a direct route over the Union Pacific Corp. railroad tracks in Magnolia when complete in fall 2019. Additionally, TxDOT’s widening project of a 2.8-mile stretch of FM 1774 in the Pinehurst area is set to be complete in fall 2018.
According to Riley, the tolled extension of Hwy. 249, or the Tomball Tollway, through Montgomery and Grimes counties to Hwy. 6 in Navasota—estimated to be complete in January 2020—is also expected to ease traffic congestion in Magnolia.
During festival season, Magnolia Police Department Lt. Kyle Montgomery said drivers often impair mobility in Magnolia by following mobile map applications that reroute around heavy traffic and onto blocked-off roads.
From freeway to festival[/caption]“The problem is when people want to follow [their devices] that want to send them down all these side streets … they realize that a lot of these side streets are blocked. Then they have to work themselves back [to FM 1774 or FM 1488],” Montgomery said.
To improve mobility for residents, Riley said Precinct 2 residents can place a designated sticker on their windshields to allow them to drive on local roads closed to festival traffic. Stickers are available at Riley’s office as well as Precinct 5 Constable David Hill’s office.
While traffic was less of a concern last year, Montgomery said the city often deploys additional officers to keep traffic moving.
“We didn’t have to worry about additional staff during the day [last year to address traffic congestion],” he said. “It was more or less about extra people to do DWI enforcement.”
Bryant said the festival plans to include tips on suggested travel routes, such as traveling south along FM 1774 from Hwy. 105 to avoid construction in Magnolia, as part of its promotional materials leading up to the 2017 season.
Economic benefits
Although the city of Magnolia does not directly receive revenue from the Texas Renaissance Festival, the city sees additional visitors during festival season, which adds to its hotel occupancy tax revenue fund, said Tana Ross, planning technician and economic development coordinator for the city of Magnolia.
Based on 2012-17 data, Magnolia receives an average of about $17,000 in hotel tax revenue in the fourth quarter of each year, at least $6,000 more on average than any other part of the year.
“Both [of] our inns are filled to capacity during the Texas Renaissance Festival, contributing greatly to hotel [and] motel occupancy tax revenues,” Ross said. “The HOT revenues allow the city to keep its place in promotions of the entire city for a destination location, city festivals, chamber events and the Magnolia Historical Society.”
Dona Hunt, former president of membership for the Greater Magnolia Parkway Chamber of Commerce, said she believes Magnolia economically benefits from the festival workers and charitable contributions festival officials make.
Renaissance festival travel tips[/caption]“The people that live [in Todd Mission] during the Renaissance Festival shop at the grocery stores, they buy gasoline and whatnot, and they are seen in the restaurants all around town,” she said.
Magnolia nonprofit Society of Samaritans has received nearly 70 percent of its annual $150,000 budget from TRF contributions in the last six months, which has allowed SOS to offer a summer meal program for children and additional educational workshops for adults, board of directors President Shirley Jensen said.
“They feel like it’s a bigger impact for the whole community [by donating to SOS],” she said.
Additionally, local eateries benefit from the festival, Magnolia Superburger owner Marc Lattanzi said. While residents are not fond of the traffic congestion, Lattanzi said the stopped cars along FM 1488 mean more hungry customers.
“Nobody ever walks on [FM] 1488 over here, but we had people that were walking down the road [last year], getting food and then meeting their party at the end of the driveway,” he said. “We got slammed. It was great.”
