What's the parking situation like? Can you easily park a car on the street overnight? We're renting a car and I'm worried about parking it if we don't get a hotel room (with a parking lot) and just wing it. Anyone have any advice on that?

Thanks!

~Lauren

Last year I was able to park right in front of wayward council at 10am Saturday and stayed there until 6. Abby road parking cost i think $5 saturday night, but was available. Also the parking lot next to common grounds had spacecs pretty much all day sunday.

Take Warning of Tow Zones and such.
Last year we parked behind a business and walked two doors down to grab some grub, and the car was gone.
They have tow truck drivers who just drive around looking for naive foks.

Find a place on the street somewhere and park it an leave it. I don't think it'll be a problem to sleep in your car, but the worst the cops'll tell you is to move along...but take the keys out of the ignition if you're drunk.

You don't want to ruin your Fest experience with a DUI.

i had my car towed too, I've only been to gainesville once and it was a pain in the ass to find parking, especially around university. do public parking lots exist in gainesville?

there is a large parking garage right in between Common Grounds and the Side Bar. It's right in the middle of everything. Can't remember how much it is.... $5 bucks maybe?

more importantly is there OVERNIGHT parking. Not necessarily to sleep in the car, but just to leave it somewhere overnight? Does the parking garage allow that?

Aside from the one parking garage downtown, There aren't any other open public parking lots that I know of.

Almost every private lot in Gainesville is patrolled by private roam towing companies, which can and do tow whether or not the owner of the lot has asked them to. Residents of apartment complexes routinely end up with their rental cars or their visiting friends' cars towed. People who are confused about which shopping center a lot belongs to often suffer the same fate. It is a huge racket that the residents of Gainesville suffer under, and it makes tow truck drivers some of the most hated individuals in town.

The City itself isn't too bad, though- on-street parking enforcement is less stringent, and usually involves a ticket rather than a tow. The only thing to really watch out for is neighborhood permit signs, as those do fall under the jurisdiction of the roam towers.

Once you get a few blocks away from downtown, parking restrictions drop off drastically. If you can find a block with no signs whatsoever, then it's perfectly ok to park there for as long as you like, including overnight. (I'd recommend changing locations over the course of the weekend, though, to avoid problems with whosever block you happen to be parking on.) if you're at all paranoid about parking, I recommend just driving a few blocks further out from the center. If you're worried about breakins, just putting away any obvious signs that you're travelling should probably do the trick. (Out of state plates are not so unusual in Gainesville).