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I participated in Atlanta’s Piedmont Park Art Festival last weekend, and I found myself spending a lot of time worrying about something I don’t normally give much thought to: parking.   So I was wondering if there are other art fairs with parking situations as bad as Piedmont or perhaps even worse.

The promoter offered no parking for artists, but did post a list of local parking lots on their web page, and let us know where not to park to avoid getting tickets.

Piedmont Park is in Midtown, Atlanta, and most close-by hotels don’t have surface parking.  I had to start planning where to park when I made my hotel reservations.  The vertical clearance and whether trailers would be welcome in their underground lots is not clear in advance, and they charge dearly or insist on valet parking.  So my search for a hotel with free parking and a surface parking lot led me to make a reservation about 12 miles (20-30 minute commute) from the fair with a hotel promising “truck parking”.

But that still left the question open as to where to park my SUV and small trailer during setup and breakdown, and my SUV during the show.  The promoter only offered parking in the park on Sunday, and only for trailers.  So I had to travel to Atlanta a day early just to figure out a parking strategy.  That included checking out all surrounding parking lots for vertical clearance issues and willingness to accommodate trailers.  Also, I had to drive around the local neighborhoods and carefully read their “no parking” signs to see if parking was at all possible on the streets.  Instructions and hours varied from street to street.  Finally, I had to check out a local high school where the promoter said that they might (“unconfirmed”) sell tickets to their parking lot as a fund raiser.  It turned out that school was in session already, so parking in their lot would not be possible on Friday, but might be on Saturday and Sunday.  My driving around discovered that parking on neighborhood streets was possible on Friday, even with a trailer, as long as I removed it by 5PM.  Even so, it was a 20 minute hike between my booth space and the car/trailer.  On Saturday, such parking was not legal, but the local high school did go into business selling $10 tickets to their parking lot presumably only for normal size vehicles.  Again, a 20 minute hike was in order.  On Saturday, I had to leave the trailer at the hotel.  On Sunday, we were allowed to park our trailers in the park, if we arrived at 9 AM.  But we had to unhook and park our tow vehicles elsewhere.  So after breaking down the booth on Sunday night I had to hike to the high school to collect my SUV, then drive halfway around the outside of the park in city traffic to get to the approved entrance, and drive at 5mph halfway through the park to get to my trailer, hook up, then drive at 5mph to my booth.  Total time: 30-45 minutes.  And that was without encountering any traffic in the park.

Although this all worked out in the end, it cost me considerable time and effort, plus at least an extra day’s hotel expenses.  Note that all of this was for a small SUV pulling a 5x8 trailer.  I can’t imagine what the drivers of bigger rigs did (maybe not participate?).

It also had additional consequences: it was impossible to use the trailer for backup inventory storage or to store packing material for breakdown.  Fortunately, there was space behind the booth, and nobody bothered my containers sitting there overnight (this in a neighborhood with high crime statistics).  Also, I have to wonder how parking problems affected attendance, especially from other parts of the city and the suburbs.

So parking was a big issue with this fair.  It probably does not faze the locals, but for me, I would prefer to avoid fairs with similar parking issues. That begs the question: what other fairs are as bad or worse from a parking standpoint?

I just returned from a festival I have vended for 5 years. It's run pretty simple, the expectations are the same as elsewhere - behave - act like an adult - take care of yourself/your booth/your product/your customer - and keep out of other vendors booths etc.

What I don't understand and could really use some guidance here are the vendors who come barreling in during set-up/tear down and during the show with the attitude that it is "ALL" about them. They totally block the entrances with their vehicles, and sometimes more than one entrance if they are pulling a trailer (I am talking about not being able to slide thru on the sides with a dolly, nadda) they spread out all over the place when setting up so no one can get past their booth area, and to make matters worse - this past weekend, they were get this - parking UNDER my motorhome canopy, and up to within inches of the other side although I was parked in a clearly defined spot I paid for.

If you go to the show organizer - then you are labeled a complainer.

I spoke to the one blocking 2 entrances and asked her to move and she acted like I was suppose to bow down and kiss her feet first. And I thought...huh? There were 10 of us setting up with all of our vehicles parked a good 30 plus feet away so we could all use the entrances equally and she just came barreling up with the look out I am here and it's ALL about me attitude.

The ones parking so close to my motorhome - due to the length of road access in front of the motorhome, I would have never been able to pull out, they were blocked too close to me there was absolutely no swing room, and I had already paid for the camping spot which happens to be on the back side of one of the 5 buildings - they are assigned to those of us with rigs, and there was designated parking.

This tends to go on at many shows. Typically, my business partner and I break down everything, and carry it out so that others with smaller vehicles can get in and out, and we politely wait and are more times than not the last ones out, however, this constant rudeness just blows me away.

How do you handle this?

So, this is too bad, but not too big a surprise, considering... Were you there? Did you pay to park? I know I paid $20 to the Unitarian Church. This probably didn't get counted in the mix as well as many of the other private parking lots. But this is the official info. Read it all here:

http://www.annarbor.com/news/dda-parking-revenues-from-art-fair-at-lowest-level-in-a-decade-users-of-parking-system-down-in-july/ 

For those of you who are intrigued about what happens in cities before the big shows descend on them you'll find this article from the Royal Oak Tribune interesting. It is all about where residents and visitors will park during Arts, Beats & Eats, which is held on Labor Day weekend and draws 100's of 1000's of people to Royal Oak's downtown. Not only is the show promoter, Jon Witz, involved in the street layout, so is the Oakland County Executive, the mayor, the residents, the business people...this is a big deal.

• Who wins?
• Where will the show be this year?
• How much will the parking tickets cost?
• Who gets the revenue?
• What streets will be used? ...makes you glad to set up and get out of town with some fat pockets, doesn't it?

Residents defend festival parking: http://www.dailytribune.com/articles/2011/03/03/news/doc4d7054514fc76792252001.txt?viewmode=fullstory