Planning to spend a lot of time in Roanoke this weekend for the Down By Downtown music festival, or the Blue Ridge Marathon on Saturday morning? Now you can park your pop-up camper or RV downtown: welcome to Urban Camping LLC. It’s the latest brainchild from restaurateur, physician and City Council member Dave Trinkle, a partner in Urban Camping LLC, which they label as “festival docking.”
Starting with Down By Downtown, then continuing with Festival in the Park, Microfestivus and the Oak Barrel Blues event, campers can rent space at the surface lot across from Elmwood Park, starting at $40 and up. Wheeled campers only – no tents allowed. Trinkle said his group is leasing that lot from the city and then renting spaces to campers.
Urban camping has been a hit in several other places; Seattle being the one that stood out to Trinkle. He said Downtown Roanoke Inc. and the city weighed in and liked the idea. “They thought the concept was very worthy.”
Trinkle said he and his partners all “love to go camping, and love to go to festivals. For a good year or so we’ve been asking – why not in Roanoke and why not in downtown Roanoke?” (There are more details on the Urban Camping-Roanoke Facebook page, and a link to the rental application.)
Park downtown for festivals and you can also visit the museums as well as the festivals, said Trinkle. There’s no water supplied, at least for this weekend’s Down by Downtown festival, although there will be porta-potties on site – and the new Elmwood Park bathrooms right across the street. “It took us a little while but we put it together,” said Trinkle. He hopes that out-of-towners may find urban camping – whether they are here for the marathon or the music – as an appealing alternative.
Trinkle said they’ve copied rules from happenings like Floydfest and the Locken Festival regarding campsite etiquette. There’s a common tent where people can gather to play games; there’s no electricity but 24 hour security will be provided. They may do some tweaking before the next Urban Camping event, Festival in the Park in late May. “We’re going to try to make it as friendly, easy, accessible and fun for everybody [as we can].”
Trinkle said it will “be great” to look over to Elmwood Park, to see marathoners and music taking place this weekend – people “enjoying downtown and the city of Roanoke. I think it will catch on and be a great vibe.”
By Gene Marrano
