Moncton music festival goes green, limits parking to carpoolers

Organizers of the Magnetic Hill Music Festival want concertgoersto rely on carpools and shuttle buses to get them to the August event.

The city announced on Thursday that there will be no parking on city property during the Aug. 2 concert, which will feature the Eagles, KT Tunstall and the Sam Roberts Band.

Instead of providing parking space for all concertgoers, the city will be setting up a bike compound and a $7.50 roundtrip shuttle service on Codiac Transit.

"These are the steps we're taking from a public transportation perspective to encourage people to help us green the concert," said Ian Fowler, Moncton's director of community services.

The city has also joined with an online carpooling service called Pickup Pal to co-ordinateconcertgoers still looking to get to the site in their vehicles.

The service, which can be accessed through the Magnetic Hill website, matches up concertgoers from the same region and then allows them to print out a coded ticket. When the ticket is brought to the concert site, the vehicle will be allowed to park onsite for $10.

All other vehicles will be required to use off-site, private parking services.

The Pickup Pal service has previously been used for the Montreal Jazz Festival and the Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest.