Staff Photo by Gillian Bolsover Trooper Jeremy Byars directs Bonnaroo-bound traffic at Exit 114 off I-24 Thursday. Over 100 troopers were on hand to help control traffic on the interstate.

In one day, the population near Manchester, Tenn., swells to eight times its normal size.

Tens of thousands of cars, RVs, trucks and vans wind along roadways and converge on Interstate 24 for the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, which starts Thursday and runs through Sunday.

More than 100 Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers, Coffee County sheriff’s deputies, Manchester police and private security guide the estimated 80,000 festivalgoers along two roads — Interstate 24 and U.S. Highway 41.

In the eighth consecutive year of Bonnaroo, police and festival attendees alike say traffic has improved.

“The first year when we woke up when the concert started, our town was a parking lot,” Coffee County Sheriff Steve Graves said.

Traffic was backed up on the interstate 20 miles in each direction, creating nine-hour delays, he said.

Sheriff Graves said there was little to prepare the community or police for the flood of people that drove in from all corners of the country to the quiet, green patch of Tennessee farmland where the festival is held.

In a small highway patrol command center on the westbound side of the interstate, troopers look over maps of the area, color-coded to show each agency’s responsibilities:

* The interstate and U.S. 41 — highway patrol.

* Manchester city roads and intersections — Manchester police.

* County roads and security checks entering the festival — Coffee County Sheriff’s Office.

Highway patrol Sgt. Larry Fraley worked Coffee County during the first Bonnaroo in 2002.

“Every road was backed up to the county line,” he said. “The interstate didn’t move for 16 hours. Didn’t move, locked up.”

At noon Thursday, the busiest day for traffic because most festivalgoers are arriving, cars lined the shoulder of Interstate 24 for more than eight miles. But cars passing through on the interstate had no delay.

Troopers start working the event on Wednesday and stay on 12-hour shifts through Monday, THP Sgt. John Harmon said. There is no dinner break during the shift. Rain or heat, the troopers stand on the asphalt guiding traffic.

Behind the festival grounds, a camper and large tents house the sheriff’s command center.

Coffee County Sheriff’s Capt. Frank Watkins said there was about 36 hours of continuous traffic during the festival’s first few years, but with police coordination and annual planning, that number is down to 20 hours.

The captain said deputies began working the event Tuesday, even though gates didn’t open until Wednesday night.

Some festivalgoers who come early to the area will “try to sneak through and hide in the woods,” he said.

Capt. Watkins said halfway through the first day, there hadn’t been many arrests or incidents.

“I attribute that to the weather,” he said. “When it’s burning hot, tempers flare.”

A storm front dumped rain in sheets on the grounds and interstate for about 10 minutes at midmorning, and an overcast sky kept the temperature down into the early afternoon.

As traffic moved at a crawl, many drivers and passengers left their cars to socialize with other festivalgoers behind them in line, creating large gaps and an accordionlike effect in the pace of traffic.

“Here we are still sitting where we’ve been in line since six o’clock in this morning,” said Greg Ford about 11 a.m. Thursday. Mr. Ford, who drove from the Quad Cities area on the Illinois/Iowa line, has been to the festival before and said the wait was about the same as last year.

Growing frustrated at cars passing on the overpass in front of him, he said he was “contemplating honking his horn” but was within sight of the entrance so he’d relax.

He said the wait would be worth it, “once we set up and cook some food and drink some beer.”