As FloydFest gears up for its seventh annual run beginning today, organizers and the officials who oversee the Blue Ridge Parkway say they've put the hubbub over traffic enforcement behind them.

"The folks who run FloydFest have diligently worked to establish a cooperative relationship with the National Park Service," festival spokeswoman Linda DeVito said Wednesday. "We feel our patrons' safety is paramount and trust everyone will exercise good judgement in coming to our family-friendly festival."

For the past two years, the four-day music festival has been accompanied by complaints that festivalgoers were being targeted for traffic stops and searches by parkway rangers. Even Floyd County Sheriff Shannon Zeman was pulled over as he drove along the parkway, which is the access to the festival's grounds in Patrick County.

The festival drew an estimated 10,000 people last year. Parkway officials have denied singling out drivers headed to the festival and noted that only 182 vehicles were stopped last year.

After the outcry, U.S. Congressman Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, called for talks between FloydFest's organizers and the parkway's administration, saying he wanted to protect an important cultural and economic event.

A Jan. 18 letter from parkway Superintendent Philip Francis to Boucher said that FloydFest will be treated the same as any other event of its size along the parkway.

Francis also wrote that the parkway would disband its Criminal Interdiction Team, which had been assigned to patrol around FloydFest. The unit had realized its goals of increasing apprehensions for impaired driving and drug and weapons violations, and of cutting down on collisions, Francis wrote.

Boucher said Wednesday that the important thing is "FloydFest will not be treated in any way differently" than are similar events.

"We're all interested in observing" how the new policy works out, Boucher said.

DeVito said that festival organizers appreciate the help they've received over the years from Patrick and Floyd county law enforcement and the Virginia State Police. She urged people attending FloydFest to consider taking a back route from U.S. 221 via Canning Factory and Black Ridge roads to reduce parkway traffic.

Parkway Chief Ranger John Garrison said Wednesday that rangers are trying to slow an increase in traffic accidents this year, a rise that has occurred as traffic deaths have fallen nationally.

This weekend, rangers will focus on preventing accidents and easing congestion around FloydFest, particularly around the three parkway intersections nearest the festival, Garrison said.

"We'll be taking care of business as usual," he said.