The Vermont Festival of Fools produced by Burlington City Arts returns August 3-5 with a jam packed weekend of street performances, comedy and music. 
In its eleventh year, The Festival of Fools features the best international street performers from around the globe. Four main stage locations surrounding the Church Street Marketplace and City Hall Park will feature continuous street theater, performing to big crowds downtown all weekend. The party concludes with the “Last Laugh Variety Show” in City Hall Park on Sunday.
Friday evening’s events will see Bank Street closed between Center Street and St. Paul Street. The street will be shut down to traffic around 3:30pm to accommodate setup. The street will be reopened shortly after 10pm, once cleanup crews are finished. On Saturday, the same stretch of Bank Street will be closed between 11am-10pm. Marketplace Garage’s Bank Street entrance for transients and leaseholders will remain open.
As always, we encourage you to consider taking alternative modes of transportation to enjoy the foolishness. Greenride bikeshare has multiple hubs around downtown, the College Street Shuttle remains a great free option to get from up the hill, to downtown and off to the waterfront, and bikers can utilize our bike parking map to find all bike parking options!
While Marketplace Garage will be open throughout this event, we strongly encourage you to utilize College and Lakeview Garages. These facilities will feature ample parking and keep traffic near events to a minimum. All three facilities will operate normally and continue to offer two-hour free parking. Visitors using Marketplace Garage are encouraged to use Cherry Street’s entrance, although Bank Street’s entrance will remain open.
Throughout the event, a small number of metered spaces in the downtown will be reserved for performers, so that they can unload equipment for events; these meters will be bagged to avoid confusion. These bagged meters will be centered around College and Main Street near City Hall Park and near intersections of side streets and Church Street.
For more information about the 2018 Vermont Festival of Fools head to their website. Also, keep an eye our for event updates via Park Burlington’s Facebook, Twitter and website.