Park City arts festival: Time to brush up on parking, traffic after a year off
There will be heavy restrictions on roads and lots in Old Town this weekend

Park Record file photo
The Park City Kimball Arts Festival returns this weekend after a cancellation in 2020 forced by the novel coronavirus.
And Parkites might need to brush up on some of the logistical challenges of the festival.
Traffic and parking have for years been issues during the weekend of the arts festival, and City Hall and the organizers at the Kimball Art Center have devised blueprints for the community that resemble those of previous years.
Parking closures in the Main Street core are scheduled to start early on Wednesday. According to City Hall, spots in the Bob Wells Plaza on Swede Alley and the Brew Pub lot will be closed to drivers starting at 6 a.m. on Wednesday. Then, at 6 a.m. on Friday, officials will close Main Street, Heber Avenue and Swede Alley to traffic. The remaining parking spots on Swede Alley will also close at that time. A reopening is planned by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday.
City Hall by the end of Tuesday expected to finish distributing access passes to people who live in Old Town south of 15th Street. Businesses in the Main Street core also will receive access passes. Officials will require access passes for drivers beginning on Friday morning and ending on Sunday evening. The access passes are designed to guard against festival-goers jamming Old Town roads and leaving their vehicles in the neighborhood surrounding Main Street.
Festival-goers driving to the event have the option of parking in the China Bridge garage on Swede Alley. The rate on Friday is $3 per hour after 5 p.m. with the first hour being free and a maximum of $18. On Saturday and Sunday, the rate is set at $5 per hour between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., also with the first hour being free and a maximum of $18. Standard rates will be charged after 5 p.m. The public parking in the Old Town core is expected to fill early each day. Privately held garages or lots charge their own rates.
A series of park-and-ride lots are available with bus service to the Main Street core. They include the Homestake lot off Kearns Boulevard, the Ecker Hill lot on Kilby Road, the Park City School District campus on Kearns Boulevard, Park City Mountain Resort and Snow Park in lower Deer Valley. The Snow Park lot is available to festival-goers from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Sunday. Masks are required on public transit.
People who hold employee, carpool or business parking permits issued by City Hall will be allowed to park in the lot on the north side of the Marsac Building, accessible from Marsac Avenue, or the upper lot at the Gateway Center, which will be accessible from Heber Avenue.
A staging area for taxis and a drop-and-load area will be available in the lots on the south side of the Marsac Building from Friday until Sunday. A bicycle valet will also be available, along 9th Street.
Jenny Diersen, the economic development program manager at City Hall, expects the attendance to be similar to previous festivals. Organizers in July estimated 50,000 people will attend the event, a figure that would put the attendance in the range of arts festivals prior to the pandemic.
More information about topics like parking and transportation is available on the City Hall website, parkcity.org. The direct link to the information is: parkcity.org/home/showpublisheddocument/70496/637634908518370000.
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Nagie grew up in the Snyderville Basin and has lived inside the Park City limits since 2020. He is a physics teacher at the high school.

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