Security in question at music festival

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (WTNH) -- The shooting at a Colorado movie theater has sparked a conversation about safety in public spaces.

One of the biggest public venues in our state is The Gathering of the Vibes music festival, which is going on right now in Bridgeport.

The founder of the festival went to school in Colorado. He says his thoughts are with the families there. However, he says when it comes to security there they have not made any changes. He says security has always been strong and they've never had a problem.

Every July, The Gathering of the Vibes music festival draws thousands of people to Seaside Park in Bridgeport. The 4-day event requires a lot of planning and plenty of security.

"Got a lot of security, a lot of fence line, a lot of help from Bridgeport Police Department," said Ken Hays, Festival Founder, "and we've done it before, we've got a proven track record of keeping everyone safe."

About 20,000 people are expected to turn up at the festival grounds each day. Each one of them will go through a tight security check.

"When people get off the shuttle buses from the offsite parking lots all their bags are checked," said Hays.

"They're pretty thorough and friendly," said Don Trischett.

While many visitors were upset to hear about the shooting in Colorado, they say when they come to the public space they never worry about their safety.

"I don't really think about it when I come to this it doesn't come into my realm of thinking," said Trischett.

"I'm not concerned about that here," said festival goer Michelle. "I think it's a peaceful crowd, anything can happen anywhere so you have to just go on with your plan."

Another festival goer shared Michelle's sentiment.

"You can really drive yourself nuts thinking about stuff like that and as she said things can happen anywhere at any time. If you dwell on it what kind of life are you going to have? So you just have to carry on. It's a horrible thing that happened, but you just got to move on."

Half the people who show up will camp out on the property, so there is round-the-clock security.

"We live in very troubled times and I think something like Gathering of the Vibes, it levels us and it gets us away from the day-to-day insanity that's going on in our world and brings us closer to friends and family, which is truly something we should be focusing on," said Hays.