Hello Fireflies!
Here is some important info related to the transportation logistics for Firefly this year. Read on to learn more about:
1. Charter Bus and Truck Share for Firefly - Renting a car? Why not take the bus?
2. Rideshare - Find a travel buddy to Firefly.
3. Parking Passes - All cars entering Firefly will need to have a pre-purchased parking pass.
1. Charter Bus and Truck Share for Firefly
One of the limitations at the event, and a big potential headache if it rains, is parking. To help minimize this problem, Parking Core will be coordinating at least one 55 passenger charter bus from Somerville, MA to Firefly and back this year!
Bus tickets will go on sale Thursday May 1st. Purchase
tickets before May 19th and receive a discount! The ticket prices (not including ticket fees) are as follows;
- Early Bird Ticket Special - $34
- Regular Price Tickets - $44
Round trip bus tickets will be sold online via the Firefly ticket page using Wepay. Tickets will be 100% refundable (excluding ticket fees) until June 2nd. After that time tickets are 40% refundable (excluding ticket fees). No refunds will be issued after June 23rd.
This bus is intended to serve you and we’d like to get your input
regarding potential travel dates/times. Please fill out the following survey if you think you will be taking the shuttle bus to Firefly.
Some space is available below the bus for small amounts of cargo, think backpack. In addition, bus ticket holders may have the option to purchase space on a container truck to transport gear and supplies. This option will depend on demand for the service and ability to find a driver for the rental truck.
If there is enough interest, the truck would be available for load starting Sunday June 29th. Truck load would happen at the same location as the bus pick-up and the truck will depart for Firefly at the same time as the bus. On the return trip, the truck would be scheduled to leave from Firefly 2 to 3 hours before the bus back to Somerville leaves in order to give people ample time to participate in LNT activities before leaving Firefly.
The size of the truck needed would be based on demand for space. The estimated cost to purchase space on the rental truck is $1.50 per cubic foot.
2. Rideshare
Are you looking to find a way to get yourself and/or your gear to Firefly? Perhaps you are lonely Firefly driving to VT by yourself and would like some company/gas-money/sing-a-long partner, etc. Then check out the 2014 Rideshare page:
This board can also be used to fill up empty space in your vehicle or in your truck/van if you are operating a designated transport vehicle. This can help free up passenger space in some other vehicle and make parking ever so much easier.
In addition to the rideshare board, we’ve set up a page for the event on RickyRides, a geographic based carpool website. The page for the event is: http://www.rickyrides.com/firefly.
The RickyRides website tracks location using zip codes and will hopefully provide a visual aid to folks as they plan their route to Firefly and look for potential carpool/vanpool partners.
3. Parking Passes
A fee is being charged for parking passes this year. The purpose of this fee is to encourage people to carpool as well as raise the funds needed to maintain the parking areas and repair the damage caused in previous years.
One parking pass is needed per vehicle. The parking pass can be purchased by anyone in the vehicle. The parking pass fee can be paid online prior to the event using a debit or credit card. Remember, the more people in the vehicle, the cheaper it is per person to park, as well as less expensive per person for gas, etc.
The parking pass fees (excluding ticket fees) are as follows:
- $20 - Car/Pick-up
- $10 - Designated transport vehicles
- Free - Motorcycles
When purchasing the parking pass online, you will have the option to provide the make, model, license plate info and date of arrival/departure for the vehicle you’re bringing to Firefly. It’s fine if you don’t know all of this information at the time of purchase. You can add this information to your parking pass when you arrive at Firefly and check in with Parking.
Anyone can purchase a parking pass (including people on the waitlist) and the parking passes are transferable. Please contact parking@fireflyartscollective.org to transfer your parking pass to someone else. If you don’t use your parking pass the fee will be refunded (excluding ticket fees).
To encourage people to work together to transport their gear to Firefly, space has been designated in the upper parking lot for designated transport vehicles. Designated transport vehicles are trucks and vans that are used to transport gear for multiple Fireflies or an art project to
the event. Designated transport vehicles will need to register with Parking prior to the event to reserve a spot.
Parking Passes will be going on sale May 1st. Stay tuned for an announcement.