With the Waukesha GuitarTown festivities and the opening of the Friday Night Live weekly summer concerts taking place on Friday, city officials are anticipating large volumes of people to flock to downtown Waukesha this weekend.
As a result, the City of Waukesha’s Engineering Department has announced that some of the streets in downtown Waukesha will be closed to traffic.
One of these areas is westbound on W. Main St. at W. Broadway. Turns on the other approaches to the 5 Points from 1 to 11 p.m. Friday will be restricted.
The central portion of the 5 Points (the intersection of Main, Broadway and Grand) will be closed. Traffic going westbound on W. Broadway will only be able to turn left onto southbound N. Grand Ave.
Traffic heading northbound on N. Grand Ave. will only be able to turn right onto eastbound W. Broadway, while those on eastbound W. Main St. will only be able to turn left onto westbound. Eastbound W. Broadway traffic will only be able to turn right onto westbound W. Main St.
This location has been added to the street closures since the unveiling of the artistic Gibson guitars will take place in the 5 Points. The opening ceremony begins at 5:30 p.m. before The Les Paul Trio begins playing on the main stage at 6 p.m.
The music at six stages at various businesses in downtown begins at 6:45 p.m. as part of the Friday Night Live festivities. After that, the Sammy Llanas Band will then play with former Buffalo Springfield music legend and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Richie Furay and Rusty Paul on the main stage at 8:30 p.m.
This street closure at the 5 Points is in addition to the ones at Main Street from Maple Avenue to N. Barstow St. and most of Clinton (W. Broadway to South St.), Broadway and Gaspar streets that are regularly closed for Friday Night Live.
The Waukesha Police Department began closing the streets for Friday Night Live in 2010 after crowds continued to increase and spilled over into the streets. Closing these streets, however, has upset some downtown business owners, as they have claimed that the event needs to be better organized and should be less than 18 weeks.
Nevertheless, the event has grown in now its 11th year and after another offseason of debate between downtown stakeholders, the streets will be closed from 5 to 10 p.m. every Friday night from this Friday until Sept. 28.
The streets at the 5 Points are closed an hour longer this week due to the GuitarTown festivities stretching later into the night.