Festival organizers have found a parking solution for the Greater Mandeville Seafood Festival with the assistance of the State of Louisiana, St. Tammany Parish and the City of Mandeville.

Festival organizers said that an additional 1,500 places are available this year at Fontainebleau State Park, site of the event. When these spaces have all been utilized, overflow parking will be available at Monteleone Junior High School, 63000 Blue Marlin Drive, across U. S. Highway 190 from Fontainebleau State Park. Adjoining the school, another parking lot is also available to hold over 4,000 vehicles.

Handicapped parking is reserved next to the entrance pay gate at the event. Overflow parking will only be used when on-site parking is full. This is not expected until late afternoon. Shuttle bus service will run from these locations beginning at 4 p.m. each day until one hour after the festival closes on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s deputies will provide security.

In addition, shuttle service will be provided from old Mandeville to the festival with buses running about every half-hour. The route will run from the Trailhead on Girod Street to Lakeshore Drive to Jackson Avenue to U. S. 190 and ending at the festival gate at Fontainebleau State Park. These buses will also run from 4 p.m. until one hour after the park closes. The route will take about 30-40 minutes to run.

Shuttle service will also run throughout the on-site parking lots.

Since the largest crowd is expected at the fireworks display Saturday night, visitors are urged to arrive early and carpool when possible because traffic is expected to be heavy.

“The GMSA would like to publicly acknowledge the elected and appointed officials of the State of Louisiana office of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, the administration of Southeast Louisiana Hospital, the Louisiana State Police Troop L, St. Tammany Sheriff Jack Strain and the members of his department, the St. Tammany parish School Board, and School Board Member Don Villere, the entire St. Tammany Parish Council and Parish President Kevin Davis and his staff, Mayor Eddie Price and the city of Mandeville and the greater New Orleans Expressway Commission,” Bill Dobson, president of the Greater Mandeville Seafood Association, said.

Dobson said all the agencies had a part in providing the parking plan and support the charities that the festival benefits.

Parking became a problem this year when Recreation District No. 1, known as Pelican Park, raised the rent of parking spaces from the original price of $500 to $1,965.50 last year to a negotiated rate of $5,136 this year.

The original rate offered this year was $28,925, which was then lowered to $11,600 before the final price of $5,136, or $1 per space was offered. Pelican Park required the fee whether all spaces were utilized or not.

The recreation district board said in a meeting June 10 that if the parking lots are rented for an event at another venue, the facilities such as the Castine Center and the ball fields cannot be rented because there would be no parking available, and the result is a loss of income for the facility.

The St. Tammany Parish Council had unanimously passed a resolution on May 7 requesting that the recreation district provide free parking for the event, but the recreation district instead set a rental fee at the meeting held June 10.

The seafood association refused the rental offer. The above alternate parking venues and shuttle arrangements will serve festival attendees instead.