About a million people visit the Iowa State Fair every year, and there are only about 15-thousand parking spaces on the fairgrounds, which has led to a micro-industry of nearby residents parking cars in their yards. It’s the subject of a new feature-length documentary. Des Moines filmmaker Shawn Hicks says “Parkers” is the tale of the people in the neighborhood surrounding the fairgrounds who create improvised parking lots around their houses every August.
The story tells how it’s typically one of the hottest times of the year, there’s extremely heavy traffic, flaring tempers, and raging drunks — contrasted with a surprising amount of tenderness. One man featured in the film openly carries a holstered gun on his belt, in his words, “just in case,” while a grandmother marked her 86th birthday on the curb, flagging down cars. Hicks, who grew up on Des Moines’ East Side, says he was inspired to make the film after hearing so many stories about the parkers over the decades, like this one:
Perhaps ten-thousand cars park in the neighborhood each day of the fair. Some folks charge five dollars a day for a space, others can get twenty. Multiply that by 11 days of the fair and the cash can really add up.
The documentary will be featured August 29th and September 5th on the big screen at the Fleur Cafe and Cinema in Des Moines, what Hicks calls fundraising screenings. He’ll be there to do question-and-answer sessions after the showings.
https://parkersmovie.com/
https://fleurcinema.com/
