The Gathering of the Juggalos, a post-apocalyptic five-day wicked-clown festival we may have told you about once or 379 times, begins tomorrow in Cave-In-Rock, Illinois. Tomorrow, as in not today. Yet this has not stopped Insane Clown Posse fans from traversing the far ends of the Juggalo universe to find family love more than a day early. Right now, there is currently a very long line of cars backed up along the local road that leads to festival grounds HogRock Campground, full of overzealous clowns waiting for the gates to open.
This is one gridlocked view of the scene, posted around one pm CST:
“They started jamming traffic up a little after six this morning,” Hardin County Sheriff Joyce Cullison told us this afternoon. The Illinois State Police, who’re providing back-up for the local force for the second year, responded accordingly, patrolling the Cave-In-Rock route, giving out tickets, and making arrests.
“We’ve had 10 or 15 in four or five hours,” says Cullison. Six involved drug charges (“Not a large amount either”), one for unpaid child support. The rest were apprehended for lacking auto insurance, vehicle registration, or driving with a revoked license. No weapons have been found, Cullison notes, “so far.”
“We got one upstairs who might be extradited,” says the Sheriff, referring to the alleged deadbeat dad. Everyone else bonded out. “It’s been a long day. Imagine what tomorrow’s going to be when it opens.”