It’s going to by a busy Friday night in downtown Hartford and that means a mess of traffic.
A Yard Goats game, a concert at the Xfinity Theatre, and a performance at the Bushnell are all scheduled to start between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Tailgaters were out early for the Dierks Bentley concert at the Xfinity Theatre. Hartford police said the theatre holds about 15,000 people and Friday night’s show is a sold-out.
Another 6,000 people are expected to attend tonight’s Yard Goats game at Dunkin’ Donuts Stadium. And more for a showing of "The King and I" at the Bushnell. Overall, police anticipate around 21,000 people heading in for these events.
“Our traffic division will be out there and we’ll be helping that run as smooth as possible and believe me there’s no one better than that. At the concert tonight, we will have our full deployment of our traffic division. We are also going to be enforcing the underage drinking and the public drinking as well,” said Hartford police Deputy Chief Brian Foley.
Police are reminding residents and visitors to be patient heading through the area and to plan for heavy traffic leaving later tonight.
“I mean I was already expecting a nightmare getting out of here like last year when we came to the Jason Aldean concert but we didn’t have that much more events going on so it’s probably going to be a lot worse,” said Joshua Ward of Southbrook, Maine, who came hours early to avoid the traffic and see Dierks Bentley.
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The hospitals are also prepared for what Dr. Steven Wolf described as the “mayhem” that comes during major events.
“Nobody is managing these under age kids and so we can’t do that ourselves and the families and parents need to step up to the plate,” he said.
Police stressed that they would be out in force not only for traffic enforcement, but also to look out for underage drinking and drunk drivers.
