Where to Bike, Bus, Ride and Park at the 2024 Columbus Arts Festival

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Columbus Arts Festival, presented by the American Electric Power Foundation and produced by the Greater Columbus Arts Council (GCAC) June 7-9, has become the city’s “welcome to summer” event. Even with all the excitement downtown over the weekend, there are many ways to get to the Festival, with plenty of parking on both sides of the river and a variety of transportation alternatives.

Bike

With multiple bike lanes and the Scioto Greenways paths, biking to the Festival is easy. In addition to ample bike parking along the riverfront, the Festival has partnered with Franklinton Cycle Works to provide free, monitored  bike parking during Festival hours. The bike corral is available on the east side of the river at South Civic Center Drive at West Rich Street; while it is monitored, guests should secure their bikes.

The closest CoGo Bike racks are located at:

• Bicentennial Park
• South Front Street north of Town Street
• Washington Boulevard and West Broad Street
• West Town Street at Lucas Street

For the safety of everyone, bikes must be walked through the Festival grounds.

Bus

COTA will be running all weekend long, with stops along High, Front and Broad streets throughout downtown. Festival patrons can explore the best routes to get to the Columbus Arts Festival at ride.cota.com. Local fare is $2 and day passes are $4.50. Riders can pay by cash (exact change only) or by downloading COTA’s Transit app: cota.com/transitapp.

Rideshare

The recommended addresses for rideshare drop off or pickup are either COSI (333 W. Broad St., 43215) or The Junto (77 E. Belle St., 43215) west of the river. Both of these locations are easily accessible off West Broad Street and provide multiple points of access to the Festival.

Electric Scooters

A variety of electric scooters are available around downtown Columbus and will bring guests to the perimeter of the Festival grounds. The scooter companies will enforce geofencing on the Festival footprint, which means scooters will stop and cannot be locked/deposited at the Festival. Riders must walk the scooter out of this restricted zone prior to walking into the Festival grounds.

Parking

Parking is available on surface lots both east and west of the river, at paid kiosks or through the ParkColumbus app on surrounding city streets, and in garages throughout the downtown and Franklinton area, including:

• Columbus Commons garages
• Starling Street garages on the Scioto Peninsula
• RiverSouth garage at Front and Rich
• LeVeque Tower garage at Broad and Front
• National Veterans Memorial & Museum lot (across Broad from COSI)
• Gravity garage on West Broad
• Scioto Peninsula Underground garage (west of COSI, under Dorrian Green)
• River and Rich garage at Rich and McDowell in Franklinton

Note that not every parking garage may appear on the ParkColumbus app.

The city of Columbus offers paid parking through the nearest kiosk or with a mobile device by downloading the ParkColumbus app from the Apple App Store or Google Play, texting “park” to 77223, or scanning a QR code found on signage throughout downtown.

The ParkColumbus app not only provides an easy way to pay but shows where there is parking, and can send guests text notifications when their time is running out. Festival-goers can reserve parking through ParkColumbus here: parkcolumbus.parkmobile.io/venue/bicentennial-park/events.

When parking for the Columbus Arts Festival, guests should also note:

• Parking rates vary day by day, and during special events are often higher than standard rates. (The Columbus Commons garages at 55 W. Rich St. and 191 S. Third St. are slightly farther away (0.4 mile), but may offer lower rates.)
• Temporary no parking signs must be obeyed even if the ParkColumbus app shows the zone as available.
• While guests aren’t able to reserve an ADA space in a garage, ADA spaces on the street are still marked and parking garages also provide ADA spaces on a first-come, first-served basis. Guests with mobility concerns may also want to consider using the designated rideshare drop off locations.

More information on transportation to the Columbus Arts Festival can be found at columbusartsfestival.org/visit/parking/.

Festival Hours: Friday, June 7 from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday, June 8 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Sunday, June 9 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Please note: on Friday and Saturday artist booths close at 9 p.m.; artists have the option to stay open later.)

To volunteer at the Columbus Arts Festival, please go to columbusartsfestival.org/engage/volunteer.

For more information on the Columbus Arts Festival, call (614) 221-8531 or visit columbusartsfestival.org.

For a selection of high-res images, visit the Festival’s press media page.

The Columbus Arts Festival is produced by the Greater Columbus Arts Council.

The 2024 Columbus Arts Festival is presented by the American Electric Power Foundation. Additional sponsors and partners include Bank of America, Bath and Body Works Foundation, Battelle, COSI, Downtown Columbus, Edwards Communities, Encova, G&J Pepsi, Go Brewing, Graeter’s, High Bank Distillery, Holiday Inn Downtown, Hotel LeVeque, Huntington, IGS Energy, The Junto, King Business Interiors, MLS All-Star Summer Roadshow, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, The Ohio State University, OSA Technology Partners, Paul-Henri and Erika Bourguignon Charitable Trust, PNC Bank, Priscilla R. Tyson Cultural Arts Center, Rhinegeist, Sonesta Columbus Downtown, South Wind Motel, Toyota, Visit Savannah, The Westin Great Southern Columbus, White Castle and Whole World Lemonade. Media sponsors include ABC6/FOX28, Columbus Radio Group, Dispatch Media Group, Lamar Outdoor, Ohio Magazine, Orange Barrel Media, WCBE and WOSU Public Media.

Mission of the Greater Columbus Arts Council: To support and advance the arts and cultural fabric of Columbus. www.gcac.org

The Greater Columbus Arts Council receives major financial support from the City of Columbus, Franklin County Commissioners, Ohio Arts Council and The Ohio State University. None of these funds are used for the production of the Columbus Arts Festival.

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