37th cleveland international film festival :: April 3 - april 14, 2013
Film Festival Blog
March 26th, 2011 @ 3:15pm

The Perennial Parking Problems

Like it or not, finding a parking space is becoming one of the major Film Festival rites of passage. If you're driving in, this can be a major issue. Tower City Center's parking garage is often full of professional commuters during the weekdays, and a variety of events in the evenings and on the weekend -- aside from the Festival itself -- have people flocking in. With the Huron Road entrance still closed and so much competition for spaces, getting one can become a frustrating start to your day at the Festival. Since we want to keep frustration to the minimum, we have a few suggestions.

1. Can't find your way in?
If you haven't been to Tower City in a while -- maybe it was 2009 the last time you tried to park here, because it's been even longer than that for me -- you might have missed the closing of the Huron Road entrance ramp after it was found to no longer be structurally sound. There's a detour route, and Tower City Parking has helpfully provided the public with a lovely graphic illustrating the different approaches you can take to reach it. The map is also on our driving directions page.

2. No space in the lot?
Your first possible alternative is the Riverview lot. Shuttles run between the lot and Tower City until 2 am on Fridays and Saturdays, and until midnight the rest of the week, so you don't have to resign yourself to a long walk. If the Riverview lot isn't available, you have some additional alternatives in the area -- twelve other lots can potentially accommodate you. I should warn you that some of them do have fees, and some of them may fill up too, depending on the time of day and nearby events.

3. Got a space and need to validate your ticket?
We have five locations where you can get your ticket validated. Tim Smith, down at the "Ation" desk in the walkway, has one of the validators, and there's another one at the Solutions desk right in front of the Cinema. Inside the Cinema, you can get your ticket validated at the box office, the Merchandise counter, or at the Patron Services counter next to the Challenge Match table. Some of those locations close down before all of the films finish playing, but the box office will continue validating tickets through the very end of the night. Ticket validation only works for the self-parking lots in the Tower City garage and lots, not valet or off-site parking.

4. Don't want to drive at all?
Take RTA! It will bring you right to Tower City on many of its bus lines and all of its Rapid Transit trains. Especially on game days, they often have extra buses and trains in service to accommodate the fans pouring into downtown, and it's a great way to push all of the problems aside. They have several Park-N-Ride locations that you can commute in from, so that you don't have to deal with downtown parking lots at all. If you're taking the green line, you might even see me!

My best recommendation, no matter what: give yourself plenty of time, so that any challenges you run into won't make you late for your film.

Tonight we have the Moondog Coronation Ball going on in the Q, and then there are Cavs games on Sunday and Tuesday. The Lake Erie Monsters are playing hockey games on Wednesday and Friday, and the Cleveland Indians season opener is coming up next weekend as well. There's a lot going on downtown during the Festival, so once again, give yourself plenty of time and make sure you have a few backup options in mind if the Tower City lots are full, so that you can have the best possible time while you're here with us. Keep an eye on our driving directions page for up-to-date information as we get it, and we'll see you at the movies!

Posted by Lara Klaber

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