photo by: Amy Harris/Invision/AP)

Shaboozey performs at Outside Lands Music Festival on Friday, Aug. 9, 2024, in San Francisco, Calif.

In a summer full of orange construction cones, this surely will be the most welcome sight of the year on a Lawrence street.

Shaboozey — owner of the current No. 1 song on the Hot 100 Billboard chart — will be in the middle of Massachusetts Street in downtown Lawrence for a free concert that is expected to draw thousands on Friday night.

“It is a really big deal,” Downtown Lawrence Inc. Director Andrew Holt said.

It also comes at a really good time for downtown restaurants and retailers. Tourist-oriented businesses across the city are adapting to a slower-than-usual fall season as the University of Kansas is playing all of its home football games in Kansas City due to renovation work at the Lawrence stadium.

Friday’s event is hosted by Kansas Athletics — it is dubbed the Rock Chalk Block Party — and downtown businesses are betting that it will provide a boost to business and help offset the fact that KU’s football game versus TCU on Saturday will take place at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

If any one person can provide a boost, Shaboozey would be a good bet right now. The artist who is described as having a mix of hip-hop, country, rock and Americana styles, arguably has owned summer 2024.

His single “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” is not only the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart currently, but it also has held that spot for the last 11 weeks. It has been in the No. 1 spot longer than any other song in 2024. The song also is currently the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot Country Songs Chart. It has held that spot for 15 weeks.

The biggest number of Friday night’s event, though, might be zero. That’s the admission charge to the concert. There’s not even a need for a ticket. Fans can just show up and walk into the open-air concert area, which will be in the 1000 block of Massachusetts Street, in front of the Granada Theater building.

“Get there early,” Mike Logan, Granada owner and the Lawrence concert promoter, said of advice for concert-goers.

Shaboozey will take the stage at 8:30 p.m., but gates to the block party will open at 5:30 p.m. The pre-concert entertainment will include a KU pep rally at 7:30 p.m. that will feature the Marching Jayhawks and speakers to fire up the crowd for Saturday’s football game. The block party zone also will include inflatables and other games for kids, face painting, snow cones and other vendors.

The concert is the biggest event in what is a big weekend for downtown. Also on Friday — from 4 to 9 p.m. — downtown will host a unique art event. It is called Lawrence PARK(ing) Day. The event involves art pieces temporarily installed in parallel parking spaces scattered throughout downtown. (I don’t know if cussing and proof of insurance is required. They are for everything else I do in a parallel parking spot.)

The event is sponsored by Lawrence-based architecture firms Multistudio and Hoke Ley Architects. It is patterned off a longtime San Francisco art show that challenges observers to explore art in an urban environment. Lawrence hosted such an art show pre-COVID, but this marks the first time it has come back to Lawrence since the end of the pandemic, Holt said.

I don’t have a list of the exact locations you can find the art, but wandering around in search of art, I think, is part of the experience. But, to help you out, most of downtown’s parallel parking spots are on New Hampshire and Vermont streets, and also on the numbered streets that run east-west and intersect with Massachusetts Street.

On Saturday, look for more traditional finds in downtown Lawrence parking spots. There will be lots of old, classic and hotrod vehicles downtown. In fact, look for about 500 classic cars to be on display as part of the Rev It Up! Hot Rod Street Fest. The show will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday on the portion of Massachusetts Street that runs through South Park. In other words, get to 11th and Massachusetts streets, and you will start seeing cars.

The event also will feature food trucks, a beer garden, and a fun zone for kids. The event is free for spectators to attend. However, it also is a major fundraiser for the Ballard Center, the North Lawrence-based nonprofit that provides a host of services to people in need. Proceeds from the registration of vehicles and sponsorships go to support Ballard.

The event is also a big-time traffic generator in downtown. Ballard officials estimate that more than 10,000 people attend the event, which is now in its 16th year.

While the car show wraps up at 4 p.m., downtown’s big Saturday won’t quite be done. Another Lawrence traditions runs from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. in downtown. St. John the Evangelist Catholic Parish will host its 28th annual Oktoberfest. The parish is at 1234 Kentucky Street, which is next door to South Park.

The event will include live music and will feature homemade German food and German beer. Items on the menu include bratwursts, schnitzel, bierocks, cabbage rolls, German potato salad, sauerkraut and other items.

photo by: Chris Conde

Cooks prepare dozens of hot pretzels on Saturday, Sept. 29, 2018, at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Parish.

Thus far, weather forecasts are good for both Friday and Saturday. Downtown leaders said they’re optimistic the weekend will be a big one for both visitors and businesses.

“We think it will bring a lot of people to downtown, and it will bring them here for a really sizable amount of time,” Holt said. “We are not just talking about one or two hours worth of events.”

This weekend normally would have been the third weekend for a home football game in Lawrence, if not for the football stadium renovation. Restaurants across the city have been hosting watch parties and offering other specials to try to capture crowds on those football weekends. Holt, though, said the drop-off in business has been noticeable.

“Anecdotally, it is down,” Holt said of game day business.

Logan — who in addition to being a concert promoter and venue owner also is on the city’s convention and tourism board — said hotels in Lawrence are “uber sold out” this weekend. In addition to the concert, it also is KU’s Family Weekend. He said bookings reportedly are strong for KU’s Homecoming weekend on Oct. 19. But he said bookings for other fall weekends are lagging. He said he expects businesses to try to do special, or even extravagant, things to get people to come to their businesses to watch games. One of his venues, Rick’s Place, has been renting a 16-foot video screen for its parking lot on game days.

“We will take whatever we can get,” Logan said of ideas to boost business this fall.

Of course, there is one idea that it time tested to boost football enthusiasm, and Logan is optimistic it is on the way.

“Hopefully, the Jayhawks get back on the winning side,” Logan said. “That will help a lot.”