Mill Avenue closes to every car, truck, and rideshare between 3rd Street and University Drive for the whole Tempe Festival of the Arts weekend. That single fact is the reason this guide exists. Nearly 225,000 people move through that stretch of downtown Tempe over a three-day run, per Tempe Festival of the Arts' own event page, so the block you'd normally pull up to simply isn't open to traffic once the booths go up.
The question worth answering before you go isn't which garage looks closest on a map — it's where a bus carrying your whole group can actually stop, and where it waits until you're ready to head home.
That's what's covered below: the honest drop-off picture for a charter bus or party bus headed to Tempe Festival of the Arts, what parking near the closure runs, which roads still get you close, and how the timing works for the December 2026 dates. Fill out the quick form or call 602-613-9680, and Tempeminibuscompany.com can start comparing vehicles for your group in about a minute.
Why Rent a Bus to Tempe Festival of the Arts?
Because Mill Avenue itself is closed, everyone walks in from somewhere else — a car, a rideshare, and a bus all end up on the same sidewalk eventually. The advantage of a private vehicle isn't skipping that walk. It's not sending forty people to find that walk on their own, in forty different directions, from forty different parking spots.
A Tempe Festival of the Arts charter bus rental keeps the group together from the first stop to the last one. Everyone boards at one pickup point, gets dropped at the same cross street near the closure, and knows exactly where to meet again when the booths close for the day. That's the whole case for it — one gathering point instead of a scattered one, on a weekend when roughly 225,000 other people are also trying to find their way back to their cars.
Charter Bus & Party Bus Drop-Off at Tempe Festival of the Arts
The festival occupies Mill Avenue between 3rd Street and University Drive in downtown Tempe, according to the event's own Tempe Festival of the Arts Get Here page. During show hours that stretch is closed to vehicles entirely — not reduced, not one-way, closed — so no car, rideshare, or bus pulls up to a booth on Mill itself. Every drop-off happens on a cross street feeding into the closure.
The festival's own accessibility guidance is the clearest published word on where a vehicle can actually reach the event. It notes "limited drop-off zones" operating "at five major festival entrances" for vehicles carrying ADA permits, with accessible meters reserved specifically on 5th and 7th Streets near the venue, per the same Get Here page. Even without a permit, that tells your group which cross streets actually feed the festival gates — 5th and 7th, running off Mill — and that's the natural place for a Tempe Festival of the Arts party bus to plan its curb stop, one block off the closure instead of circling for a spot inside it.
Entrance locations can shift slightly year to year as the festival footprint is finalized, so the exact gate closest to your group's drop point is worth confirming against the festival's interactive festival map before your date, and Tempeminibuscompany.com can help line that up with your pickup and drop-off when you book.
Where a Charter Bus Stages During the Festival
Rio Salado Parkway, one block north of the closure, stays open to traffic all weekend and runs wide enough for a coach to sit curbside while your group is inside — it's also where the Downtown Tempe Authority keeps its own office, at 1 W. Rio Salado Parkway. That makes it a reasonable staging corridor for a bus that needs to wait rather than circle.
The parking structures built directly into the Mill Avenue corridor — the 100 Mill Parking Garage at 100 S Mill Avenue, and the Brickyard Garage's entrances on 6th and 7th Streets — are sized for passenger cars, per Downtown Tempe's parking map. A minibus or Sprinter van can usually work inside those structures; a full 40- to 56-passenger coach is better staged along an open cross street or a surface lot outside the closure footprint. Either way, confirm the exact staging spot with Tempeminibuscompany.com when you book so it's locked in ahead of your date.
Mill Avenue itself is closed to vehicles for the entire festival. Every drop-off and every staging spot happens on a cross street — 5th and 7th are the ones the festival names for its own accessible entrances — which is exactly why a group needs a plan for the curb before the weekend, not on it.
Tempe Festival of the Arts Parking: Garages, Meters, and What They Cost
Downtown Tempe carries more than 20,000 paid public parking spaces citywide, spread across garages, surface lots, and on-street meters, per Downtown Tempe Authority's parking page. None of that changes the math for a group, though — a cheap space is still one more car to park and one more person walking back alone once the festival lets out.
The garages sitting closest to the closure are named on Downtown Tempe's parking map: the 100 Mill Parking Garage (100 S Mill Ave), the Brickyard Garage's 6th Street and 7th Street entrances, and the Mission Palms north and south lots at 281 and 301 S Mill Ave. For ADA parking specifically, the festival points to the 201 S. Ash Garage, on Ash Avenue between Rio Salado Parkway and 3rd Street, per the Get Here page.
On-street metered spaces — more than 550 of them downtown — run posted rates through most of the week, but go free on Sundays and holidays, per Downtown Tempe's event parking page. That's worth knowing because the festival's Sunday hours run 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. — the one day of the three when a meter near the closure won't cost anything at all.
Special event parking only changes the posted rate at a garage when the city actually posts one for that date; otherwise, as the same page states plainly, "standard rates apply." Check the current listing close to your date rather than assuming a rate, and lean on Tempe TRiP for real-time availability or call the Downtown Tempe Authority directly at (480) 355-6060.
Run the math on a 30-person group split across eight cars: eight parking transactions, eight separate walks back once the crowd starts moving, and eight reunions to coordinate at closing time. A Tempe Festival of the Arts party bus turns that into one paid stop and one meeting point for everyone.
Driving Routes to Tempe Festival of the Arts
The festival's own directions break down by where your group is starting from, per the Get Here page. From the southeast Valley, take Loop 101 north to Loop 202 west and exit at Rural Road. From the south Valley, take I-10 west and exit at the Hohokam Expressway toward University Drive.
From the north Valley, take SR-51 to Loop 202 east and exit at Priest Road. Coming from Phoenix Sky Harbor, take Loop 202 and exit at Priest Drive south.
Sky Harbor sits roughly eight miles from Mill Avenue, which usually runs 15 to 20 minutes outside of festival hours — longer once the closure is funneling every regional route onto the same handful of cross streets near downtown.
No matter which freeway gets your group into town, the last mile is the slow part — every one of those routes empties onto the same set of cross streets the closure hasn't taken away. A bus that already knows its curb doesn't have to guess which exit still has room.
Valley Metro Rail, Rideshare, or a Private Tempe Festival of the Arts Party Bus?
The festival leads its own visitors toward rail first. Its Get Here guidance tells attendees to "hop off at Mill Ave/3rd St (Station A14) or the Tempe Transportation Center (Station A13)" for direct access to the festival, and notes free parking at 13 Park-and-Ride locations systemwide, per the Get Here page. For one or two people, that's genuinely hard to beat — park free at a rail lot, ride in, skip the downtown parking search entirely.
For a group, the math changes. Everyone needs their own fare, everyone has to stay together on a platform that's sharing space with a share of that 225,000-person weekend crowd, and there's no guarantee the whole group boards the same train. A rideshare has the same problem in a different shape — separate cars, separate drop points as the closure pushes pickup zones around, and no way to know everyone landed in the same spot until someone starts texting.
| Option | Gets you to… | Arrives together? | Best group size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private charter or party bus | A curb stop near 5th or 7th Street, off the closure | Yes — one vehicle, one drop | 15–56 |
| Valley Metro Rail | Mill Ave/3rd St or Tempe Transportation Center station | Only if everyone catches the same train | 1–4, free park-and-ride |
| Rideshare | Whichever open cross street is currently accepting pickups | No — separate cars, separate ETAs | 1–4 per car |
| Driving and parking yourself | Whichever garage or meter still has room | No — separate walks in and out | 1–2 cars |
A private bus is the only option on that list where the group actually stays a group — one pickup, one seat count, and nobody splitting off from the crowd to hunt for a platform or a curb on their own.
What Size Bus Fits Your Tempe Festival of the Arts Group?
The right vehicle for a festival trip comes down to headcount more than anything else — there's no tailgate gear to haul, just a group that wants to walk the booths together and get home without splitting into multiple cars. Tempeminibuscompany.com compares options across the full vehicle lineup so you're not paying for more seats than your group needs.
| Vehicle | Typical seats | Good fit for |
|---|---|---|
| Tempe Sprinter van rental | Up to ~14 | Small friend groups, a single family, an art-club field trip |
| 18-passenger minibus / 25-passenger minibus | ~18–25 | Office outings, birthday groups, mid-size clubs |
| 35-passenger minibus | Up to ~35 | Larger groups that still want a single, quick pickup |
| Tempe party bus rental | ~15–50 | Groups wanting the ride over to feel like part of the trip |
| Tempe charter bus rental | Up to 56 | Large clubs, work groups, or a full class heading downtown |
| Tempe school bus rental | Varies by vehicle | School or youth-group art trips on a set schedule |
Groups under about 15 people usually do best in a Sprinter van or a smaller minibus — easier to stage on a side street, easier to park while the group browses. Once a group tops 25 or 30, a full charter bus or party bus starts making more sense, since it's still just one curb stop no matter how many people step off.
Tempe Festival of the Arts Party Bus & Charter Bus Rental Prices
A handful of things shape the quote for a Tempe Festival of the Arts bus rental: the vehicle size, how many hours you need it reserved, the specific date — December weekends and March weekends both draw a crowd — and how far the pickup point sits from downtown Tempe.
To give you an idea: a 25-passenger minibus booked for a six-hour block — pickup at 9:15 a.m., staged near the festival through the early afternoon, home again once the group is done browsing — might land somewhere around $900 to $1,100, or roughly $40 a person split across a full group. It always moves with the date, the hours, and the vehicle, so the fastest way to get a number for your actual trip is to fill out the quick form or call 602-613-9680. The Tempe bus rental prices page has more detail on how quotes are built.
Leaving Tempe Festival of the Arts Without Getting Stuck
Friday and Saturday sessions end at 5 p.m.; Sunday wraps at 4 p.m. Whichever day your group goes, the crowd funnels off Mill Avenue through the same cross streets it used to get in — 5th and 7th among them — and a closed main street means every rideshare and every private vehicle is competing for the same handful of open blocks at once.
A bus staged nearby skips that scramble. Agree on one pickup window and one meeting point — the cross street you were dropped at is the easiest choice — before the group splits up to browse the booths, so nobody's trying to relocate the whole group through a crowd that's sharing the sidewalk with roughly 225,000 other people that weekend.
Tempe Festival of the Arts 2026 Dates and Booking Timeline
The next Tempe Festival of the Arts runs December 4–6, 2026, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., per Tempe Festival of the Arts' event page. Admission is free, the show typically brings out more than 350 artists, and it's held twice a year — a December run and a second one in early-to-mid March.
The festival describes itself as one of the oldest in the Southwest, with a run stretching back more than 50 years, and it's picked up the International Festival & Events Association's Pinnacle Award along the way. Leashed dogs are welcome on Mill Avenue during the show, though the festival's event info page notes that motorized wheelchairs aren't provided on site.
A three-day weekend that draws roughly 225,000 people to a handful of blocks around downtown Tempe puts real pressure on the parking and vehicles closest to that closure — the earlier a group locks in a vehicle, the more likely it gets the exact size and pickup window it actually wants for a December or March date.
Planning more than one downtown Tempe stop that weekend? Also headed to a Sun Devils game at Mountain America Stadium or a show at Desert Financial Arena — those guides cover their own drop-offs.
Frequently Asked Questions About Tempe Festival of the Arts Bus Rental
Where does a bus actually drop off at Tempe Festival of the Arts?
Mill Avenue between 3rd Street and University Drive is closed to vehicles for the entire festival, so no bus pulls up on Mill itself. Drop-offs happen on a cross street feeding into the closure — 5th and 7th Streets are the ones the festival names for its own accessible entrances, and they're the natural pickup spot for a private bus too.
Where does the bus wait while our group is at the festival?
Rio Salado Parkway, one block north of the closure, stays open through the weekend and works as a staging spot for larger coaches. Smaller vehicles can often park inside a nearby structure like the 100 Mill Parking Garage, though full-size charter buses generally stage along an open street rather than inside a car-sized garage.
How much does parking cost near Tempe Festival of the Arts?
Downtown Tempe runs standard posted rates at its garages and on-street meters unless a special event rate is listed for that date. On-street metered parking is free on Sundays and holidays, which lines up with the festival's Sunday closing time of 4 p.m.
What roads close for Tempe Festival of the Arts?
Mill Avenue closes to vehicle traffic between 3rd Street and University Drive for the run of the show. Nearby cross streets, including 5th and 7th, stay open and are where drop-offs and pickups happen instead.
How early should our group arrive?
Aim to be parked or dropped off well before the 10 a.m. opening on Friday and Saturday, since both the closure and a growing crowd make the last few blocks slower the closer it gets to opening time.
What size bus fits our group?
Groups under about 15 people typically do well in a Sprinter van or a smaller minibus. Groups of 25 to 56 usually make more sense in a full minibus, charter bus, or party bus, since the whole point is arriving and leaving as one unit regardless of headcount.
What shapes the price of a Tempe Festival of the Arts bus rental?
Vehicle size, the number of hours booked, the specific date, and the distance from your pickup point to downtown Tempe. Quotes are built around your actual trip rather than a flat rate, so pricing is confirmed when you call or submit the online form.
Is Valley Metro Rail a good alternative to a private bus?
For one or two riders, yes — the festival itself points visitors to the Mill Ave/3rd St and Tempe Transportation Center stations, with free parking at Park-and-Ride lots. For a group, staying together through a crowded platform and matching everyone to the same train gets harder the bigger the group gets.
Is Tempe Festival of the Arts dog-friendly?
Yes, leashed dogs are welcome along Mill Avenue during the festival. Groups bringing a dog should plan for that on the walk between the drop-off point and the booths, since the sidewalks fill up fast.
Is there ADA parking and drop-off?
The festival designates the 201 S. Ash Garage, between Rio Salado Parkway and 3rd Street, as its ADA parking option, plus reserved accessible meters on 5th and 7th Streets and limited drop-off zones at five major entrances for permit holders.
When is the next Tempe Festival of the Arts?
December 4–6, 2026, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The festival runs twice a year, with a second edition typically landing in early-to-mid March.
How far in advance should we book a bus for Tempe Festival of the Arts?
As soon as your date and headcount are set. A weekend that pulls roughly 225,000 people through a few downtown blocks puts real pressure on both parking and vehicle availability the closer it gets to the date.
What's the closest airport for an out-of-town group?
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport sits roughly eight miles from Mill Avenue, reached via Loop 202 to the Priest Drive exit — the same route the festival's own directions point arriving groups toward.
Book Your Tempe Festival of the Arts Bus Today
Mill Avenue closes, the crowd tops six figures over the weekend, and the group that plans its curb ahead of time is the group that doesn't spend the day texting "where are you" between booths. Whether it's a small friend group in a Sprinter van or a full charter bus for a work outing, Tempeminibuscompany.com makes it easy to compare vehicles for Tempe Festival of the Arts side by side. Fill out the quick form or call 602-613-9680 any time for pricing built around your date.
