Balboa Park Modifies ‘Free-Day’ Policy to Cut Back on Crowds

The overwhelming popularity of Balboa Park’s free admission day held each month has led to unmanageable crowds, city officials say, so they will instead allow free entry into a limited number of the park’s cultural institutions once a week.

For more than 10 years, city policy allowed visitors to enter 11 of the park’s major attractions free on the first Tuesday of each month, said David Twomey, the Park and Recreation Department’s assistant director.

Under the plan scheduled to take effect Feb. 6, free admission will be offered every Tuesday, but at selected institutions each week. For example, on the first Tuesday of each month, patrons can browse free through the Natural History Museum, the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and Science Center and the Model Railroad Museum.

The goal is to provide visitors with more opportunities to visit the cultural attractions, while breaking up the mob that now arrives on the first Tuesday of the month.

Over the years, an increasing number of park patrons have taken advantage of the admission policy, but, during the summer of 1988, crowd size on the free days often became 5 to 10 times greater than attendance on any other day of the week, including weekends.

For example, an average of 2,000 visitors entered the Natural History Museum on a regular day that summer. Average attendence on a free Tuesday swelled to 14,000, said Dick Bundy, past president of the board of trustees of the museum.

“Free first Tuesday was always popular, but there was a quantum leap in popularity that summer, which no one has been able to explain,” said Bundy, who is also chairman of the Central Balboa Park Assn., an advocacy group representing 24 cultural institutions there.

“It’s our guess that’s when people really realized that we were offering such a program,” Bundy said, “and when people began making it a routine to come to the park on Tuesday. For those people who were regulars, they began setting their schedules around free Tuesday.”

The growing crowds raised liability concerns.

“We were attracting so many people that on occasion we were exceeding the occupancy levels of buildings, particularly during summertimes,” said Twomey, the assistant parks director.

Museum staffs addressed that problem by curbing admission when the buildings reached their limits, but that caused long lines and disgruntled visitors, Twomey said.

“Not only were the lines inconvenient for the people who were coming, but it made their visits less enjoyable,” he said. “So we decided it would be best if we could split up the free days to prevent everybody from showing up on the same day.”

Parks officials said the new policy will be tried for a year and continued if it helps ease crowding. Some existing policies will stay in effect.

“Any group can get in for free at any of the institutions on any day of the week as long as they call a few days in advance and let us know they’re coming,” Bundy said. “Lots of school groups and camp groups have come charging on the first Tuesday, but they can come any time, and we’ll let them in free. That has always been our policy.”

“Just don’t call us the morning you’re coming and tell us you’re bringing a hundred kids,” he said.

On the following Tuesdays, visitors to Balboa Bark can enter these cultural attractions free:

First Tuesday of each month:

* Natural History Museum.

* Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and Science Center.

* Model Railroad Museum.

Second Tuesday of each month:

* Photographic Arts Museum.

* Hall of Champions.

* Historical Society.

Third Tuesday of each month:

* Museum of Art.

* Museum of Man.

Fourth Tuesday of each month:

* Aerospace Hall of Fame.

* Aerospace Museum.

* Automotive Museum.

(The Timken Art Gallery and the Botanical Gardens do not charge admission.)