It was my first experience with valet parking ever. And in this case, I was parking my bike.

Cycle Toronto and Autoshare teamed up on Saturday, June 8th to provide this amazing service to concert goers who arrived on two tires.

The unique and awesome Arts & Crafts Field Trip Festival had a lot of cool features, including a limited edition beer that was developed specifically for the festival.

As I made my way to Fort York (Wow! What a concert venue! It’s the big backyard I didn’t know I had), I was happy to be able to manoeuvre through the construction zones that are littered around that part of the city and ride right into the venue.

I was attending the festival with a friend who doesn’t cycle so I thought about taking transit but that quickly changed when I heard there would be a bike valet. I’d first learned about this service at the 2013 Cycle Toronto Annual General Meeting – it’s a revenue generating activity for the member-supported organization, of which I am a part.

The festival organizers encouraged attendees to come by bike:

Excitedly, I replied to let them know I was coming and a little conversation with @Autoshare ensued:

 The spOKe Corral

When I pulled up into Fort York, friendly volunteers pointed me in the right direction. The bike valet service was conveniently located at one of the main entrances.

I didn’t have to wait at all to exchange my trusty steed with a ticket. And with that my chariot of tire was wheeled off to spend the afternoon with other biciclettes in the corral. They made sure to provide parkers with information about their local cycling organization. I’m already a member but not yet a volunteer …

I walked away smiling — oops! Still had my helmet on. I returned, “Can you park this too?”

“Sure thing.” A quick confirmation of my ticket number and that was it.

Celebrity Shoutout

During Feist‘s performance, she asked how many of us had biked to the event. According to Cycle Toronto, there were hundreds who did:

It Worked!

At the end of the eve, I returned to the bike valet and was immediately able to exchange my ticket for my vehicle and pedal off into the night.

As I made my way along the bridges nearby, I noticed lots of bikes locked up to the bridge structure.

Had the bike valet been full? Did these people not know about the bike valet?

I wasn’t sure but I sure was glad I had the opportunity to park my bike the way I did.

Thanks to the amazing volunteers and the organizers! My first bike valet experience rocked.