The crowd wasn’t “waist-deep,” per se, but Thursday evening a steady flow of traffic from around the Midwest rolled into Clinton State Park for Day 1 of the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival.

Wakarusa, a Native American word for “waist-deep,” more accurately describes the Wakarusa River, which dumps into Clinton Lake.

Wynne Smith, Liberty, Mo., lets loose on the dance floor during a performance by The Schwag. Thursday marked the official start of the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival, a four-day event expected to draw thousands from around the country.

The festival will play host to what organizers are calling one of the Midwest’s largest summer music events: four days of bluegrass, acoustic and jam bands. That includes 80 bands and about 100 hours of music.

Those working the box office couldn’t give an accurate estimate for the number of tickets sold by Thursday evening. But organizers were expecting crowds of between 10,000 and 15,000 through Sunday.

Twice that many tickets are available, said Julie Ibach, the festival’s on-site box office manager.

“Theoretically, we could sell 30,000,” Ibach said. “But we don’t expect to get anywhere near that.”

Police, security

Seven deputies from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office were on hand, but perhaps their biggest event throughout the night was investigating a call about counterfeit tickets being sold at an independent booth in the Texaco station parking lot just outside the state park.

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Four deputies investigated and found that the vendors, who were buying and reselling tickets for lower than face value, had every right to be there.

“As long as they pay a sales tax and report all that, there’s not a problem,” said Lt. Don Crowe of the Sheriff’s Office.

The vendor, C & R Ticket Services of Norman, Okla., said he aimed to give people with extra tickets a place to “safely unload” their tickets.

“They, I guess, didn’t appreciate the competition,” said Mike Chandler, the company’s owner. Chandler estimated he had sold about 40 single-day and four-day tickets by 6 p.m.

He charges $100 for four-day passes and $40 for Friday-through-Sunday single-day passes. Although Thursday passes were $20 at the box office, they’ll be $50 for the rest of the weekend.

About 150 security guards from a private company out of Oklahoma provided the primary security force.

Tie-dyed crowd

The festival got off to a slow start as concertgoers, many adorned in tie-dyed gear, straggled in. Hundreds of tents had been erected in the campgrounds by the afternoon, but many of their tenants were content to sip beer to the tune of Pink Floyd and Bob Marley instead of hiking 10 minutes to the concert stage for the first few shows.

Kevin Eskew, Jackson, Miss., cooks eggs on a camping stove as his friends and travel buddies Zach Grey, left, Bret Slay (in van) and Noelle Suggs hang out nearby. The quartet camped Thursday night at the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival, which continues all weekend at Clinton Lake.

Many of the campers prepared for four-day stays. Some settled into the new community by posting lawn ornaments outside their tents.

A group of high school graduates from Topeka stood next to a tent guarded by two pink flamingoes.

“We borrowed them from his mom,” said Danny Stratman, slurring his words a bit and pointing to another friend in the group. Stratman turned 18 Thursday.

Stratman and his friends headed to the concert lawn about 6 p.m. and joined a steady stream of campers along the pedestrian path corralled off the paved road by a row of orange cones.

About 100 people showed up on the concert lawn at 4:30 p.m. for the first act, local band Arthur Dodge.

Kansas State University students Jason Hisui and Mario Corona were among those in attendance. They had arrived at 6 a.m. Thursday poised to scout a prime tent plot. They encountered only about 100 other people when they arrived.

“We should have slept in,” Hisui said.

Wakarusa Festival vendor Michael Noack, Wichita, sets up shop at Clinton Lake. Noack and his partner, Rich Krovlik, at right, arrived with their drums, tie-dyed clothing and household knick-knacks in style in an old school bus painted with graffiti on Thursday.

‘Early Arrival Revival’

While Dodge played, nearby vendors relaxed. Dozens had pitched tents to sell clothing, jewelry and other miscellaneous products. Many were setting up at a leisurely pace as bands played nearby.

Many of the vendors had planned to set up booths Thursday evening and begin selling today. That’s because concert organizers recently tacked Thursday shows to the event that was previously advertised as a three-day extravaganza. Thursday was advertised as the “Early Arrival Revival.”

Eight bands were scheduled to play one of the festival’s three stages until 3 a.m. today.

“This is their freebie day,” said Barbara Stanfield, who sells glass bottles for incense with her Wichita-based company, Enchantables. Stanfield avoided preparing her booth until Thursday because skies looked angry.

6News meteorologist Matt Sayers has forecast a wet start for today with slimmer chances of precipitation the rest of the weekend.

Today, all three stages will be exercised. Performances on the Sun-up Stage kick off at noon with a 40-minute set by Forty Twenty. Shows at the Revival Tent and the Sun-Down Stage start at 2:30 p.m. and 2:45 p.m. respectively.