The Covenant Fine Arts Center parking lot will be closed to students and staff today, March 6, until Friday March 9.

The closure is due to the Grand Rapids Symphony’s scheduled performances. Around 6,400 schoolchildren are expected to attend the Lollipop Concert Series over the four days and eight performances in the CFAC auditorium. The Grand Rapids Symphony prepared the plan and Calvin’s event services have been tasked to facilitate it.

Most of the parking in the CFAC will be closed off due to busses bringing the schoolchildren to the concert.

“We expect about 22 school busses for each performance,” said Michael Wildschut, event planner of Calvin’s event services. “The bulk of the parking is reserved for school busses.”

Faculty will still be able to park in the designated staff lot. Both faculty and students will be able to park on the outer edge of lot 9, located close to Schultze-Eldersveld. Barricades will help prohibit faculty and students from parking in the designated bus parking. Security staffing will be in place during the four days to help direct faculty, students, and attendees toward proper parking.

According to Wildschut, the benefits of the event are “to rent the space [as] it’s great revenue for the college” and “to expose a whole lot of kids to Calvin.”

The final performance is expected to end at 11:30 am. Once students are safely departed upon the busses, event services predicts the CFAC parking lot will be reopened sometime after 12 pm.