RALEIGH, NC – Traffic around the fair Saturday night was reduced after rapper Travis Scott’s scheduled concert at PNC Arena in Raleigh was postponed earlier in the day.
The indoor concert was scheduled for Saturday at 8 p.m. Organizers said ticket holders should hold on to their tickets as they would be redeemed on a different, yet to be announced, date.
Many fans were surprised by the announcement, and some still arrived at PNC Arena Saturday night unaware that the concert had been postponed. A spokesman at PNC Arena said the concert had been postponed for “reasons beyond our control.”
Fans who showed up are hoping an announcement for a new show will be made soon.
“They just told me they had no explanation [for] Why he’s not here,” Tyler Long said. “Nothing to worry about, but at the same time, Travis, I wish you were here, do you feel me?”
Several concertgoers traveled to watch him perform, including Charlie Bodenstein, who traveled from Miami to attend the concert.
The concert would have been Bodenstein’s first.
“Honestly, it’s really disappointing,” Bodenstein said.
Scott performed at the PNC Arena on Friday night. Due to the artist’s popularity, a second Saturday Raleigh show was added to the Utopia Circus Maximus tour.
There was no explanation for the last-minute change on the rapper’s social media pages. Some fans reached out to the rapper on Instagram asking for an explanation but received no response.
WRAL News is working to determine why the show was postponed.
There is heavy traffic on Friday
Due to the concert and the first weekend of the fair, there was a lot of traffic around the North Carolina State Fairgrounds on Friday evening.
Some businesses along Hillsborough Street took advantage of the situation by converting their parking lots into metered parking spaces.
“We typically have an 80 to 90 percent drop during the week,” said Tommy Hastings of Burke Brother’s Hardware. “When you come back, sometimes the traffic is a mile and a half.”
During this time, traffic in the area increases each year and local businesses are significantly affected.
Traffic congestion can be severe, sometimes stretching for miles. With opening weekend coinciding with Travis Scott’s concert on Friday, parking will be even more limited.
Visitors like Tina Crews had to spend a lot of time on Friday trying to find parking and ended up having to walk a kilometer to the fairgrounds.
“Unfortunately we couldn’t park at PNC Arena, so we had to find somewhere else to park,” Crews said.
Crews and other people park far away to see the event they’ve been waiting for all year.
“We probably drove around for about 30 minutes and then got a free parking spot about a mile away, so it was worth it,” Crews said.
Additionally, ongoing construction work on Hillsborough Street is increasing traffic problems. While the North Carolina Department of Transportation has opened additional lanes to ease congestion, considering an alternative route could be a wise decision to avoid expected traffic congestion.
Expect longer travel times and plan ahead if you’re going to Mass during this busy time.
WRAL meteorologists predict rain will fall around 4 p.m. Saturday, enough time for people to enjoy a wet evening at the fair.