Preparations are underway for the 50th annual Park City Arts Festival and a number of street closures are planned for Old Town in the next few days.
The Kimball Arts Center has 50 years of experience in planning the annual arts festival on Park City’s Main St. and it’s become a well-oiled machine. For the first time ever, the arts center is offering free admission for all 3 days – to full time Summit County residents, as long as you register and pick up your wristband at the Kearns Blvd. headquarters before you head up to Main St.
As with previous years, Park City will be closing city streets to make way for the festival booths and operations. Park City Special Events Manager Jenny Diersen has details about street closures and paid parking.
“Early Friday morning around 3 a.m. we start to remove parking -- that's from all of Main Street, Swede Alley, Heber Ave. and all the surface lots. That's really to prepare for the setup of the festival so that those streets in those areas will be closed through Sunday at midnight. And then as far as parking goes, parking rates begin on Friday evening at 5 o'clock -- so during the day on Friday, parking is normal here in Old Town in China Bridge. The best way to access the parking garage is going to be on Marsac not on Swede Alley because again that is for operations and set up with the festival. And then on Saturday and Sunday when you come to the festival, parking will be $5 an hour from 9:00 to 5:00 – the first hour is free and at 5 o'clock those rates go back to $3 an hour. The max rate for the whole day is $18.”
Free parking will be available at the two resorts as well as the schools along Kearns Blvd. making it easy to get on a free bus to Main St. There is also free parking at the 450 space Ecker Hill park and ride lot. And the city also increases the number of busses making the rounds to these lots.
“We significantly increase the transit around town from those locations so again rather that's the resorts or the school district to get people up here into Old Town.”
While there will be bus lanes along Deer Valley Drive, the city’s transit team still trying to figure out long term solutions to make the connection from Kearns Blvd. to Bonanza and Deer Valley Drive so that busses don’t get stuck in the traffic. For this year, nothing will change from prior years. However, Diersen suggests that the more people who ride the bus, the less cars there will be on the roads to clog traffic and the faster the buses can move.
The city will reopen the Homestake lot for Main St. employees for the weekend and provide regular direct shuttles to the Transit Center starting on Friday morning at 8am and running until 3 in the morning all three days.
A bike valet will be available on 7th St. and Park Ave. Bikes will be attended and can be left unlocked – but you need to make sure you pick up your bike before the festival ends all three days.
“So, on Friday night that's at 9 and then Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 6 pm,” Diersen said. “If you do want to take your bike up, you can still there's different locations where you can lock your bikes and make sure to bring your bike lock up if you're going to stay later for dinner or other festivities.”
Those living in Old Town will be required to have the appropriate parking and access passes. More information is online at www.parkcitykimballartsfestival.org
With concerts both Friday and Saturday nights at Deer Valley, parking at Deer Valley will be allowed only until 3 pm Friday and Saturday afternoons.
