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Canada Farm had to shut down it's Sunflower Selfie Opportunity
Bogle Seeds, a farm near Hamilton, Canada has shuts its doors “forever” after being completely overwhelmed by selfie loving tourists. The farm opened it’s doors on July 20th as a way to earn extra revenue on top of their barley, oats and corn crops. They were offering tourists an opportunity to snap that perfect selfie in their gorgeous sunflower fields.
The first weekend went as planned charging tourists $7.50 to enter an area of the sunflower field that was under their supervision and control. Visitors from Australia, Dubai, New York and all over the world began enjoying the chance to snap that perfect viral Instagram selfie. They had built a parking lot for 300 cars, hired eight staff and even installed port-a-potties. After the first weekend the parking lot was never more than a third full.
Everything had gone as planned until a few of the “Sunflower Selfies” went viral.
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By 5:00 am on July 28th masses of people began to arrive at the sunflower field. By 12:00 pm the parking lot was completely full and people began parking up to a kilometer away on the side of the highway. Local roads became completely over-run and people started entering the sunflower fields in off limit area’s without paying the entry fee. Staff tried frantically to control the crowds asking people politely to leave. Not all tourists were adhering to the requests and one man even responded “Make me!”
Hamilton and Ontario provincial police arrived at 2:00 pm and requested that the family shut down the operation. By then tourists were crossing four lanes of traffic with strollers on the highways and one vehicle had it’s door ripped off by a passing car. Police estimate 7000 cars arrived to the farm before 2:00 pm.
There was a light in all the madness that occurred. A few sunflower enthusiasts hoping to snap selfies instead helped to pick up garbage left behind by the mass tourism.
Safari Road which is adjacent to the field has been closed and signs erected leading to the fields state that the Sunflower Fields are now closed to the public.
40% of Millennials are basing their next travel destination on what photos they see on Instagram . In a few years, how many beautiful secrets will be left in the world when everyone is competing for that perfect Instagram selfie?
Sources: The Independent, The Verge