WAVY.com

Patriotic Festival to close roads, increase traffic

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — With a week until the inaugural Norfolk Patriotic Festival, the city has announced street closures and changes to parking.

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The three-day country music festival is set to start on Friday, May 27 and run through Sunday, May 29. It will take place on Waterside Drive, as well as in Scope Arena.


Jon Pardi will perform Friday night in Scope Arena. Kane Brown and Morgan Wallen will both perform on a special stage along Waterside Drive for the next two nights.

A special event rate of $20.00 for Patriotic Festival event parking will be in place at the following locations:

Friday, May 27

Saturday, May 28 & Sunday, May 29

All downtown parking garages will be open for the Patriotic festival except for the Waterside garage.

Meanwhile, the following streets are expected to be closed on Memorial Day weekend for the event:

City officials are warning that additional on-street parking restrictions will vary in downtown over the holiday weekend.

Ticket holders can opt-in for Patriotic Festival text alerts by texting PATRIOTIC to 888-777.

Organizers previously said the main reason for moving the Patriotic Festival from Virginia Beach to Norfolk was the need for an indoor venue in case of weather cancellations. The Norfolk Scope has much more capacity (about 11,000 for concerts) than any indoor space in Virginia Beach.

The Patriotic Festival was last held in 2019. Its events in 2020 and 2021 were both canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.