Free admission draws huge crowds to Holy Land, snarls I-4 traffic

Business columnist Beth Kassab reports that security guards at the Holy Land Experience are telling people they are about to close the gates because the park has hit capacity.

Huge crowds have turned up this morning, after Holy Land was forced to reveal in advance that it was offering free admission today (something it is required to do as part of a special tax break the Florida Legislature gives the religious theme park).

Read the column that brought attention to the issue here.

UPDATE: To accommodate the crowds, Holy Land workers were apparently giving out rain checks good for another free visit later this month -- and then ran out of those.

UPDATE #2: Reporter Hank Curtis has an update on the traffic jams spawned by Holy Land's free day:

“It’s gridlocked from what I understand,” Orlando police spokeswoman Sgt. Barbara Jones said shortly after 11 a.m. of traffic heading both ways on I-4.

Back-ups began on Florida’s Turnpike about a quarter-mile before the exit for Orlando. In the righthand-most northbound lane, cars moved bumper to bumper at 5 mph. toward I-4.

On eastbound I-4, the bumper-to-bumper crawl continued about a mile to the Mall at Millenia exit for Conroy Road and Holy Land.

Orlando motorcycle cops had stopped all westbound cars from exiting for Holy Land.