If only we could have alt-weekends

This last weekend we went to the National Western Stock Show and the event was packed! I've been going since I was a kid but I have never seen it so packed. Just arriving at the stock show complex we sat in a long line of cars on the I-70 exit ramp for half an hour. Once inside, the line was too long for my daughter to get a pony ride... the line was too long for face paint and it was too long for the kids' petting zoo. Sure, we could've queued up for an hour, but we had rodeo tickets and didn't have time. Every other year we've gone we've never had to wait in long lines.

I'm sure this is familiar for lots of events across the country and not just in Colorado. Perhaps the population has reached a critical mass; I don't really know what the reason is, but it has made these kind of events much less fun.

One idea to mitigate crowds is alternative weekends. If half the population took their weekends during the week, say Monday/Tuesday, it could spread out attendance to various recreational destinations over more days, potentially reducing it by half.

However, can you imagine schools trying to accomodate this? Having extra part-time staff work weekends, teaching the same material to the alt-weekend kids that was missed during the week? Perhaps an entire school could switch weekends, but this would be a tough sell to all the enrolled families.

Lots of jobs in the service industry and beyond already require you to work weekends. Families make it work. If only there was a way to align it across school, and businesses, etc. One day may come if our population keeps growing when we don't have a choice but to make alt weekends work.