State fair and concerts create more traffic headaches in Raleigh

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- As the sun goes down, the lights of the North Carolina State Fair dot the sunset for a night of fall fun.

But it was the brake lights that became a common scene around the Fairground. Moriah and her friends said they were glad they found a parking spot fairly close by.

After a busy weekend last week with the Fair and a Sabrina Carpenter concert at the Lenovo Center created a traffic nightmare from Cary to downtown Raleigh, some fair goers Friday night said they were not taking any chances.

"We actually had a friend drop us off to save us from the traffic issues so that's why we're walking now," said John Tabron from Garner.

Thankfully this Friday was much smoother.

Part of the problem is there's just so much fun at one time - In addition to the fair, Little Big Town was performing at the Lenovo Center, and there is yet another concert on Saturday.

The fair already has an agreement to make sure NC State doesn't have any home football games during the fair, and the Carolina Hurricanes are also out of town and not at the PNC arena.

But some hope, a similar agreement can be reached with Lenovo to not book concerts during peak fair time.

"I absolutely agree with that, we had to go all the way through the concert traffic, and I felt like that was a huge detour that we didn't need to take. I was confused because we were trying to park and there's nothing but concert traffic, and I'm like but I'm here for the carnival," one fair-goer told ABC11.

ABC11 reached out to Lenovo for comment, but we haven't heard back.

The North Carolina State Fair runs through Sunday, Oct. 27.