Kichi Zibi Mikan To Close Around Bluesfest
This is a release from the City of Ottawa:
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Ottawa Bluesfest takes over LeBreton Flats this weekend, with concerts from Thursday, July 4 to Sunday, July 7 and Tuesday, July 9 to Sunday, July 14. Residents and visitors travelling in the area can expect increased traffic and pedestrian activity throughout the festivities.
Take transit to and from Bluesfest
Travel on OC Transpo is free for event ticket holders. Customers can travel on O-Train Line 1, buses or Para Transpo up to three hours before and two hours after the event on the date their Bluesfest pass is valid. Simply show your wristband or pass to the bus or Para Transpo operator or use the video-chat function on ticket machines at Line 1 stations to request access through the fare gate.
O-Train Line 1 will operate more frequently in the evenings when event attendees are returning home. Service will be extended by one hour to midnight on Sunday, July 7 and Sunday, July 14. For nearby service to and from the event area, customers can use Line 1 at Pimisi, Bayview, and Lyon stations.
Para Transpo customers will be picked up and dropped off on Booth Street, north of Vimy Place, next to the War Museum.
Getting home after the show
Going east: Take O-Train Line 1 to connect with buses at Hurdman, St-Laurent or Blair stations.
Going west: Take O-Train Line 1 to Bayview or Tunney’s Pasture stations, or take bus routes 57, 61, 62, 63, 74 or 75 from Albert Street at Booth Street.
Look out for signage to find your queue line on Booth Street after the show.
Transit service detours
From Thursday, July 4 to Sunday, July 7 and Tuesday, July 9 to Sunday, July 14, some OC Transpo bus routes will be detoured from 4 pm until the end of the service day due to the Booth Street closure.
For more information or to plan your trip, visit octranspo.com or call 613-560-5000. You can also connect with OC Transpo through Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and Instagram.
Street closures and parking restrictions
The following streets will be closed throughout the festival:
Wellington Street between Lett Street and Vimy PlaceReduced by a single lane in each direction on Tuesday, July 2 at 6 am until Friday, July 19 at 6 pm.
Closed nightly, 5 pm to midnight
Kichi Z?b? M?kan between Vimy Place and Slidell Street
Booth Street between Wellington Street and Albert StreetNightly 5 pm to midnight
Kichi Z?b? M?kan eastbound between Parkdale Avenue and Booth Street
Kichi Z?b? M?kan westbound between Vimy Place and Slidell StreetThursday, July 4 and Friday, July 5, 5 pm to midnight
Tuesday, July 9 to Friday, July 12, 5 pm to midnight
Saturday, July 6 and Sunday, July 7, 8 am to midnight
Saturday, July 13 and Sunday, July 14, 8 am to midnight
Local street parking restrictions are in effect throughout the festival, please refer to on-street signage. Major restrictions include:
North and south side parking lanes on Wellington Street, between Vimy Place and Lett Street, are closed until midnight on Monday, July 22
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– The Bulldog – News Feed Enter 
– use the video chat function to request access through the fare gates – What could possibly go wrong? Excuse me while I go make some popcorn.
The Bluesfest would be an excellent opportunity for the Nightmare to show up and do some glad-handing. Hopefully he has time to attend some of the shows.
MM,
Even if the video chat works perfectly (a big “if”), there will be hundreds of people descending on Pimisi Station after the show is over, many of whom will not be regular train users and so will have to each receive a longer set of instructions on how to get through the gates. If they took the train there but got on at Hurdman or Tunney’s, they were inside a fare-paid zone so got directly on the train.
Presumably a video chat needs to have a person on the other end to instruct you. How many staff will they have on late at night to do that, especially on the weekends? Wouldn’t it make sense to either leave the fare gates open after 10 pm or have a staff person at each gate who could let you through after seeing your pass?
I really feel for the locals who have to get on or off the train in the evening at Pimisi. Can you imagine finishing work and heading home only to have to fight your way through hordes of people trying to get on the train you’re exiting?
I’m not sure why OC Transpo even bothers to mention the Lyon and Bayview Stations. How many people do they really think are going to walk about twenty minutes, including climbing up the cliff, to Lyon Street after the show in the dark on narrow sidewalks? Likewise, Bayview Station will be a fair hike and there’s no place to cross the train tracks except on Booth Street. Do they really think tired people are going to walk east from the Bluesfest site to Booth Street and then down Booth past Pimisi Station to go west on Wellington to Bayview? My money’s on those people not going past Pimisi Station.
When they get to Lyon or Bayview, how long will it be before they can get on a train that’s just left Pimisi and so is presumably jampacked before it gets to them? Added to the facts that it will be dark and people will be tired, a number of them will be less than sober or may be high which will make the hike all the more interesting for all concerned. The only reason I can think of to go to the other stations is if you are going west from Lyon or east from Bayview meaning you’ll be safely seated on the train before it gets to Pimisi or you want to go south from Bayview on the bus that’s replacing the Trillium Line trains and don’t want to have to chance fighting your way to a door on the train one stop after Pimisi.
A multi-faceted disaster waiting to happen! Better get in lots of popcorn – it’s going to be a long show!
Sisco,
“The Nightmare” – that’s brilliant! He’s claiming he works 9 to 5 and then heads out to sample the nightlife, such as it is so he should definitely be at Bluesfest. I hope he has to pay his own way in and is required to get there and back on OC Transpo so he really understands what the plebs go through.