Rock the Country festival brings Kid Rock, Miranda Lambert to Bloomingdale

BLOOMINGDALE, Ga. (WTOC) - Country music artists Kid Rock, Miranda Lambert and Jelly Roll are headed to Bloomingdale for a two-day music festival expected to draw 20,000 people.

The Rock the Country music festival runs May 29 and 30 at Ottawa Farms, bringing headliners to the Coastal Empire.

Pete Waller, Ottawa Farms owner, said the festival is drawing in over 20,000 people and 300 campers to the locally owned farm.

“We’re gonna put Bloomingdale on the map, that’s for sure, with this group coming in,” Waller said.

Waller said the cows are not happy about Kid Rock.

“We’re gonna move them in a different pasture, and they’re not very happy about that,” he said. “But other than that, we’ve been able to make everything work.”

Preparing for the crowd

Bloomingdale Police Chief Blair Jeffcoat said they have been preparing for the event for half the year and are partnering with multiple agencies to help with traffic control.

“We have about 52 off-duty officers coming in from about eight or nine different agencies,” Jeffcoat said. “And some of them as far away as Reidsville and Claxton, because obviously, we don’t have that many officers here in Bloomingdale.”

Jeffcoat said Bloomingdale police will remain operational outside the concert.

“We’ll still be running 24-7 police operations, cuz there will be at least four officers that are not working the event that are still dedicated to running patrol operations for the city outside of the event,” he said.

Bloomingdale police have blocked off several roads to festival traffic, including Cherry Street and Pine Barren Road. Those roads will be closed from noon until midnight Thursday and Saturday.