SALT LAKE CITY — Wity a busy weekend ahead for downtown Salt Lake City, the Utah Transit Authority will expand its TRAX Green Line service near the Utah State Fairpark, with more than 100,000 people expected to visit the area.
“We have three major events that are happening, the U of U football game, the RedWest Festival and then the Benson Boone concert that are all happening on Saturday night, so you're going to have almost 120,000 people that are flocking towards downtown Salt Lake,” said UDOT spokesman John Gleason, adding that the department's goal is to keep traffic moving.
“We have to make sure that the signal timing is exactly right that we're giving as much green light time to those major routes in and out of the events,” Gleason said.
While UDOT will have its hand full, at the three-day RedWest Country Music Festival that got underway Friday, they’re looking at 40,000 music lovers converging at State Fair Park to take in the music and the festival vibe.
“We have attendees here literally from all 50 states and Puerto Rico, we've literally brought in people from Canada, a bunch of tickets went to a family in the Netherlands, so it's pretty wild to see how many people are coming to Salt Lake City for this,” said Jake Jensen, Special Projects Manager for RedWest.
On day one, the surrounding neighborhoods told the story.
Parking was an issue, with festivalgoers’ vehicles lining the streets. But Jensen said so far they haven’t heard too many complaints from people living in the area.
“We're grateful for all of our partners here in the city of help us find solutions for that. And we're grateful for the neighbors for being so accommodating, patient as we continue to grow, quite frankly in preparation for a slightly bigger event that we're all going to have here in a few years with the Olympics,” said Jensen.
As for the now, with so many people in town, UDOT asks that people be patient around the downtown area this weekend.
“They're fun events, everybody wants to have a good time, you know, try to be kind to the other people out there even though it's frustrating being stuck in traffic, get to where you're going safely and try to help others get there as well,” said Gleason.
