Valley Forge Convention & Visitors Bureau Says Suburbs Stand Ready as City Hotels Sell Out for LIVE 8

Valley Forge Convention & Visitors Bureau Says Suburbs Stand Ready as City Hotels Sell Out for LIVE 8

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa., June 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Suburban hotels are gearing up for spillover from the crowds anticipated to attend the daylong, free LIVE 8 concert on July 2 in Philadelphia. The Valley Forge Convention and Visitors Bureau has created a micro-site at http://www.live8hotels.org/ dedicated to helping out-of-towners find accommodations and enjoy a hassle-free visit to the area for the concert and the 4th of July holiday weekend.

Ten hotels in Philadelphia are already sold out, according to an Associated Press news report.

"We created www.live8hotels.org because we believe that, whether rooms in Philadelphia are sold out or not, there will be an abundance of visitors who prefer to stay outside the city and travel downtown on public transportation, avoiding traffic and parking challenges," said Bureau President Paul Decker.

Visitors can take SEPTA's 124 bus from Chesterbrook or King of Prussia, or the R6 train from Norristown or Conshohocken and be downtown in less than an hour. Links at http://www.live8hotels.org/ connect visitors to schedules for these routes and to SEPTA's regional transportation web site.

Philadelphia will redirect traffic between Market and Fairmount streets from 15th to 23rd streets on Saturday, July 2 due to the concert.

Philadelphia is the only U.S. host city for the LIVE 8 global concert series also taking place in London, Paris, Berlin, Toronto and Rome, featuring music's biggest stars. Tens of thousands of people are expected to gather on the city's Benjamin Franklin Parkway from 20th to 26th streets, to enjoy the historic concert on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

An estimated 90,000 people jammed the long-since demolished JFK Stadium for 1985's "Live Aid" concert, which is the model for LIVE 8. That event raised money for famine relief in Ethiopia between ticket sales and donations. LIVE 8 is aimed at raising awareness of and pressuring world leaders to forgive debt, increase aid to African countries and "make poverty history," at the G-8 Summit four days later.

Will Smith, Keith Urban, Destiny's Child, Sarah McLachlan, Stevie Wonder, Dave Matthews Band, Bon Jovi, P. Diddy, Jay-Z, and 50 Cent are among the artists scheduled to perform.

The Valley Forge Convention & Visitors Bureau, Ltd. is a private, non- profit membership sales and marketing organization which aggressively promotes the Valley Forge area and Montgomery County as a convention site and leisure visitor destination by encouraging patronage of its member hotels, restaurants, attractions and services.

Source: Valley Forge Convention & Visitors Bureau

CONTACT: Linda Riley, Valley Forge Convention & Visitors Bureau, +1-610-834-7990, riley@valleyforge.org

Web site: http://www.live8hotels.org/

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