Asheville city officials are expecting nearly 10,000 Phish fans (7,200 inside the Civic Center, 2,500 outside) to descend on downtown tomorrow, June 9, for the jam supergroup’s first concert in Asheville. The city will close roads and change bus routes to deal with the masses.
Streets surrounding the Civic Center will be closed from 9:30 a.m. to midnight. Flint Street will be closed from Haywood Street to Cherry Street. Hiawasee Street will be closed from Rankin Avenue to Flint Street.
Today, the city also announced following bus route changes to respond to the car and foot traffic resulting from the concert:
Route 11 — Montford/Klondyke/Hillcrest — 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., service will operate to/from the Transit Center and Montford Avenue via Patton Avenue to Haywood Street and to Montford Avenue. There will be no service on Flint Street, Cherry Street and the portion of Haywood Street in front of the Civic Center. This applies for all inbound and outbound trips.
Route 18 — Erskine Street/Flint Street — 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., service will operate to/from UNC Asheville and downtown via North Lexington Avenue. There will be no service on Haywood Street, Flint Street and Cherry Street. This route will be used on all inbound and outbound trips.
Route 15 — Patton Avenue/Deaverview — 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., service will operate to/from the Transit Center via Patton Avenue. There will be no service on Haywood Street or Montford Avenue. This route will be used on all inbound and outbound trips.
Route 51 — Montford/Hillcrest — 7:30 p.m. to 11 p.m., service will operate to/from the Transit Center and Montford Avenue via Patton Avenue to Haywood Street and to Montford Avenue. There will be no service on Flint Street, Cherry Street and the portion of Haywood Street in front of the Civic Center. This route will be used on all inbound and outbound trips.
Tickets for the concert sold out rapidly in January, and, as is customary for Phish concerts, a large crowd is expected to gather outside the Civic Center as well.
-— David Forbes, staff writer
Oh, god. It’s gonna be freaking crazy!
(in a good, smelly, grilled-cheese kinda way.)
This was overblown just passed by there no traffic problems.
…yeah, just 10,000 extra people in town…
no biggie.
And it was still overblown I wouldnt say 10,000 people more like maybe 3-5 thousand.
so the civic center wasnt actually sold out at capacity of 7200, ml? you are saying it was some kind of publicity stunt, and that only 3000 people showed up to see phish?