Vermont town temporarily shuts down after too many influencers showed up to take fall foliage photos
With the first day of fall approaching, people are beginning to travel to New England to participate in seasonal traditions such as apple and pumpkin picking and to take in the changing colour of the leaves.
But one town in Vermont has now decided to shut down one of its roads for three weeks in response to the influx of influencers that have shown up looking for fall content.
Pomfret locals have spoken out about their anger regarding the amount of cars, tour buses, and drones flying across Cloudland Road, home to Sleepy Hollow Farm.
The town’s selectboard agreed with the residents and last month voted to block the road to anyone except residents for three weeks at the height of the foliage season, from 23 September to 15 October, The Boston Globe reported. To ensure the rules are followed, sheriff’s deputies will have checkpoints at the bottom and top of the road.
According to locals, their area of Vermont has always been a tourist attraction but there was a tonal shift five years ago when influencers began arriving. The annual fall visitors before the influencer were usually photographers. “They’ve been coming here for decades. You might have had six or eight cars come up at dawn,” Mike Doten, a farmer in the area, said. “They’re quiet. They don’t bother anyone.”
The second group are tourists sent by inns and bed and breakfast hosts in the area.
“They’re not so bad,” Mr Doten’s wife, Amy Robb, said. “Both from a numbers perspective, and how they behave.”
The locals said that the main problem with the influencers is how they treat the road like a “public park.”
"We call them Tik Tockers," Mr Doten, who owns an 80-acre farm on Cloudland Road, told The Globe, noting he once saw a woman erect a portable changing booth on-site to take selfies in different outfits, and she wasn’t the only one. "The Tik Tockers started flocking here and they kept growing, year after year."
Mr Doten said it can also pose a safety hazard, like potentially impeding a firetruck or ambulance from reaching the area in the event of an emergency. “There is no way a fire truck or an ambulance can get up this road in the middle of foliage season,” he said. “It’s just too crowded.”
This is the town’s second attempt at trying to control the influx of influencers as the town made Cloudland Road one-way only during the fall foliage season last year.
However, it was proven unsuccessful as instead of turning around and going back the way they came, they would drive up a couple of miles onto another road, racing down an unpaved road in a cloud of dust.
The residents who successfully argued for a temporary road closure aren’t resting on that. They have contacted social media influencers who have promoted the area and local inns who send their guests up to Cloudland, asking them to refrain from doing so.
“Those who have responded have been understanding and empathetic, saying they didn’t know it was causing such a problem for people who live here,” said Mr Doten.
Some influencers have listened to the citizens’ pleas. New England-based influencer Kiel James Patrick, who has over one million Instagram followers, told The Globe he’d removed posts featuring Sleepy Hollow Farm to respect the privacy of residents.
“Upon being informed of the situation by the residents of Pomfret, I recognized the importance of respecting the wishes of the local community,” he said. “In response, I’ve removed posts featuring Sleepy Hollow Farm from my platforms and communicated with friends and fellow influencers about the farm’s private nature and the need for privacy and respect.”
