The South Lot will be closed Friday and Saturday due to Student Programming Board’s Fall Fest on Sept. 28, according to Chief of Public Safety David Barger.
SPB will begin setting up for Fall Fest at South Lot on Friday, Sept. 27, leaving students, faculty and staff to park on North Lot or Hogan Lot for the next two days.
All shuttles to York Hill, Westwoods, Hamden and New Haven will also be leaving from North Lot near the Faculty Office Building, according to Barger.
Barger is sure both parking lots will have open spots.
“You may have to end up parking a little bit further out in the North Lot, but I’m sure we’ll still have spaces because based on our traffic flow on a Friday and certainly on a Saturday, which is virtually nothing, we should have more than a sufficient amount of spots,” Barger said.
Junior Jared Casey is not worried about getting a parking spot in North Lot on Friday.
“I don’t really think it is that big of a deal,” he said “It is always a struggle anyway.”
Senior Sean Benoit agrees with Casey, but believes students may find it difficult to find a spot in North Lot on Saturday when they go to the concert.
“I’m sure they have their reasons for putting [the concert in South Lot], but overall I don’t see why you wouldn’t put it on the Quad when you have this campus right here which is pretty nice looking, especially [with] parking for staff and just people in general,” he said.
Fall Fest’s original planned location was on the Quad, but moved to South Lot because the truck attached to the stage could not get on the Quad due to the pathways, SPB Mainstage Chair Kristen Foley told Q30 News.
“[South Lot] was the best option that we had and the best location with the amount of space, so I think it will still be good,” Foley told Q30 News.
The New Road entrance will also be closed on Saturday, Barger said. Students who have Hilltop parking may still leave their vehicles at Hilltop, but they must enter through the facilities entrance by the College of Arts and Sciences. A Public Safety officer will be posted at the facilities entrance and a Hamden police officer will be at the New Road entrance.
Sophomore Alicia Diaz is frustrated that the New Road entrance will be closed on Saturday because she plans to leave campus on that day and returning during the concert.
“It’s an inconvenience and I’m questioning the security of having facilities entrance open, rather than an entrance with a security booth” she said.
Fall Fest will begin at 2 p.m. on Saturday and will feature country artists Love and Theft, Eric Paslay, Canaan Smith and Sara Haze.
