LEWISTON — The city’s Lincoln Street parking garage may be a nice place to keep cars but it has a heck of a view.

That’s why Museum LA and the Franco American Heritage Center are hoping to host a dance party there Aug. 13, on the top floor of Lewiston’s newest parking garage at the corner of Lincoln and Main streets.

“The view is amazing,” said Rachel Desgrosseilliers, executive director of Museum LA. “If you go on the roof of that garage, the cities are absolutely shining and beautiful. It’s unbelievable the views we have, and this is one way to share it.”

Councilors voted 5-1 Tuesday night to let the organizers use the garage rent free for the Dance Under the Stars. Tickets, on sale now at the museum and the Franco American Heritage Center, are $20 per person or $300 for an eight-person table. Organizers are hoping to bring 1,050 people to the event.

Dick Courtemanche, one of the organizers, said he got the idea from a  similar event in Naples, Fla., last year.

“They had this great dance but the view was nothing compared to what we have,” he said. “In Florida, the event was in the middle of the city and surrounded by skyscrapers and big buildings. But we have a view of the river and the falls and all the way down Lincoln Street. It’s beautiful.”

Degrosseilliers said she hopes to take advantage of that. They plan to ring the top floor of the structure with old photographs of downtown Lewiston and Auburn.

“We want to show how much we’ve changed, and we’ve changed a lot,” she said. “You don’t realize it until you see the view, the way it used to be and the way it is now, right in front of you.”

The event is scheduled to run from 7 to 11 p.m. and features music by Nick Knowlton, a performance by Beatles homage band the LA Lads and a surprise act.

“What we’re doing is encourage everyone to go out and eat at their favorite local establishment and then come here for a great night,” she said. Desserts, created by the Culinary Arts School at the Lewiston Regional Technical Center will be served and there will be a cash bar.

People attending the event will have to find some place else to park, however. Safety codes require that the structure cannot be used to hold cars during the event. She said attendees will be directed to surface lots around the Bates Mill Enterprise Complex.

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