WRIGLEYVILLE — As the fall concert series kicks off in the Friendly Confines this weekend, officials are hoping to avoid congestion with parking restrictions and street closures.
Billy Joel will play at 8 p.m. Thursday, followed by the Foo Fighters on Saturday, with opening acts Cheap Trick, Naked Raygun and Urge Overkill starting at 5:30 p.m.
Neighbors have been wary of the four-show concert series all year, complaining of more intrusive noise levels in April that the Cubs worked to fix. Back then, neighbors voiced concerns about the upcoming concerts, although they were mainly worried about the Sept. 15 AC/DC concert that will take place on a school night.
In 2013, rainy weather delayed a Pearl Jam concert beyond the 11 p.m. curfew. Both the Cubs and Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) said continuing the concert was preferable to forcing an additional noisy night on neighbors by rescheduling.
Preparations for Billy Joel and the Foo Fighters begin Monday. Trucks, cranes and forklifts will line Waveland around 5 p.m. before proceeding to Sheffield as materials are unloaded to transform the ballpark into a concert venue.
Ballpark lights will be on overnight Monday, Thursday and Saturday and on until at least 11 p.m. the rest of the week.
Sound and lighting checks are expected on Wednesday and Friday, but will be finished by 10 p.m., the team said. The Cubs hotline (1-866-427-3869) will open one hour before the concert and stay open until two hours after the show.
Third-party hospitality teams clad in yellow jerseys will patrol the neighborhood until 1 a.m. to "provide a visible presence to the community and provide post-concert crowd observation and incident response," Tunney said in a newsletter.
For those traveling to the concert by limousine or car service, pickups and dropoffs will take place along Irving Park Road east of Clark Street. Taxis will be available on Clark south of Addison.
There will be no parking on Clark Street from Newport to Addison from 2 p.m. to midnight on both nights, with further restrictions on the east side from Waveland to Irving Park.
Parking is prohibited on Addison from Clark to Racine and from Wilton to Sheffield, and the south side is also restricted from Clark to Sheffield. Irving Park will be restricted from Clark to Seminary, and the east side of Racine will be restricted from Grace to the Green Lot entrance from Monday through Sept. 1.
Sheffield will close from Addison to Waveland, while Waveland will be closed from Sheffield to Kenmore.
As they've done all season, the Cubs are encouraging visitors to use public transportation or park in the remote lot at 3900 N. Rockwell St., where there will be a free round-trip bus available.
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