If you plan to visit downtown Halifax over the next few days, you should probably plan ahead.
Thousands of people are converging on the waterfront for the Tall Ships Festival, creating gridlock on downtown streets.
“You have to know what one-way street you want to go down and as you're going down, you have to watch for pedestrian traffic, you have to be careful of construction and you have to have eyes in the back of your head and everything,” says spectator Wanda Johnson.
Navigating through a maze of traffic has pushed people to weigh their options.
“I think I'm staying the night the whole weekend so I won't have to drive downtown,” says spectator Keith Johnson.
Along with the traffic congestion comes parking problems. Some spots will even be temporarily blocked off.
“The reason for it is to give corridors to police, fire and EHS to get to where they need to go,” says Superintendent Sean Auld.
“Don’t expect not to get a ticket,” says Tiffany Chase of the Halifax Regional Police. “Tickets will be given to parking violators and to avoid that, we suggest people take public transit.”
Metro Transit is extending its service on ferries and select buses to help deal with the influx of people.
While the congestion is causing confusion, the boost in tourism is one of the benefits of having more people in the downtown core.
“Everybody feels vibrant when people are around and there are things to do. It's just amazing,” says Percy Paris, the minister of economic and rural development and tourism.
High numbers are expected to view the spectacle on the sea and the wave of people will mean a steady stream of business for vendors like Matthew Morrison.
“We'll try and do in a week what we do in a month,” says Morrison. “So it's condensed. I have three times the staff than normal and three times the food we normally have and we'll probably sell out.”
The festival began today and more than a dozen tall ships will be tied up now through Sunday.
The parade of sail will take place Monday at noon and then the fleet divides in two. Half of the ships will then sail for Pictou and Port Hawkesbury, while the rest will continue to Lunenburg and Shelburne.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Felicia Yap
