Raleigh Wide Open still on; Berry 1 hour earlier

RALEIGH -- The downtown Raleigh festival celebrating the opening of the new $221 million convention center will go on as scheduled Friday and Saturday.

Raleigh Wide Open was threatened by Tropical Storm Hanna, but city officials decided today that the brunt of the storm will come late Friday night and before dawn Saturday.

"We've just got to batten down our tents," city spokeswoman Jayne Kirkpatrick said.

Chuck Berry's performance has been moved to 7:30 p.m., one hour earlier Friday, but otherwise, the vendors, performances, parade and fireworks will go ahead on schedule.

Forecasters say Hanna will likely make landfall on the coast Friday night, but the Triangle will see little of its heavy wind and rain.

Several streets in Downtown Raleigh will be closed beginning at 6 p.m. today so as to accommodate the festivities: The 100 to 400 blocks of Fayetteville Street; Hargett, Martin, and Davie streets between Salisbury and Wilmington streets; Salisbury Street between Cabarrus and South streets.

These streets will reopen on 1 a.m. Sunday.

In addition, streets will be closed to accommodate Saturday’s parade that begins at 6 p.m. The parade will assemble at the intersection of Salisbury and Hillsborough streets. It will then proceed south on Salisbury Street to Morgan Street, east on Morgan to Fayetteville Street, south on Fayetteville to Davie Street, west on Davie to Salisbury Street, and then south on Salisbury to the new Raleigh Convention Center for disassembly.