Chris Brown concert-goers slam traffic chaos at Carter-Finley Stadium show
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Traffic gridlock at Carter-Finley forced fans to circle, park offsite, miss acts.
- Prepaid parking lots closed; staff redirected cars without clear traffic control.
- Officials pledge multiagency review; petitions demand refunds and accountability.
Ashlee Keith has been to concerts in Raleigh, Charlotte, Atlanta, Las Vegas and Washington D.C. Tuesday’s Chris Brown concert was the fourth she’s attended.
Keith, a Raleigh native, is no stranger to the concert’s venue, Carter-Finley Stadium. She was there when Beyoncé came to town in 2016.
But not even then — not ever in her life — was the traffic as bad as it was Tuesday night, Keith said.
“I’ve never ran into an experience where they’re literally telling us there’s no parking at all,” she said.
Keith, a dental assistant, was one of many who tried to see the so-called “King of R&B” at the “Breezy Bowl” in Raleigh and got stuck in mammoth traffic, causing some fans to miss part or all of the show.
Keith was one of many fans who took to social media to complain and raise questions about how authorities prepared for concert traffic Tuesday and whether there will continue to be issues this weekend.
Heavy traffic is expected around Carter-Finley over the next 10 days when the North Carolina State Fair opens at the State Fairgrounds Thursday and pop star Billie Eilish has two concerts scheduled at nearby Lenovo Center on Thursday and Friday.
The night of the Brown show and into Wednesday, concert-goers vented about waiting in traffic for over two hours and having to park on side roads to walk to Carter-Finley.
For Keith, it was all of the above. Despite leaving for the stadium around 4:45 p.m., she said she was in traffic for roughly two and a half hours. Fed up, she parked on a side street, prayed she wouldn’t get towed and trekked 20 minutes to the stadium .
Keith missed Bryson Tiller’s opener but got there in time for Jhené Aiko, well before Brown got on stage. Others weren’t so lucky. The two girls sitting next to Keith did not arrive until Brown’s last song.
What authorities say about traffic control
Raleigh police told The News & Observer that N.C. State University police and the State Highway Patrol handled traffic for the Breezy Bowl. The N.C. State Highway Patrol said it “was not overseeing this” and directed questions to N.C. State. An N.C. State spokesperson said, “as always, a comprehensive review will be conducted with all involved agencies to ensure continued improvement for future special events.”
Alison Davis, a Raleigh resident who attended Brown’s concert, created a Change.org petition demanding refunds for tickets and parking and for concert organizer Live Nation and the city of Raleigh to “take immediate responsibility for this major oversight.” It had over 300 signatures as of Wednesday.
“Most of us left early enough to park and be inside well before 7 p.m.,” Davis said in a Wednesday Facebook post. “Many people even pre-paid for parking only to be turned away because lots were already full. Others who did make it in couldn’t get to their assigned seats and staff members weren’t accommodating.”
Keith was one of those who had paid $30 last week for a parking spot in the Lenovo Center lot . Why couldn’t she park there?
“When we got there, they’re like, ‘Oh no, there’s, there’s no parking,’” Keith said. “Like, it was literally closed off. So what they were doing was they kept making us, like, reroute back into the traffic.”
Nobody was directing traffic to prevent people from going in circles, Keith said. Keith said she saw two workers who redirected her from the Lenovo Center and two officers who blocked off the entrance. That was in contrast to what she remembers from the Beyoncé concert, where there were places to park and more officials — both from N.C. State University police and Raleigh police — directing traffic.
Concertgoers on social media recounted that Tuesday’s traffic gridlock caused frustration to spill out on the highway. Keith can attest to the screaming and fussing. One man got out of his Tesla to tell drivers to let him merge off a side road, but nobody would because they already had been circling around for parking.
“I mean, it could’ve got really bad,” Keith said. “It was so many people, and it was just the frustration of none of us [having] direction on where to go.”
Keith had tickets to see Eilish but has sold them in anticipation of the traffic.
“I was like, there’s absolutely no way that I’m gonna be okay with trying to fight the traffic for her and the State Fair at the same time,” Keith said. “I was like, I’m done. Like, I’m over it.”
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