SEATTLE — On Thursday afternoon, fans were filing into T-Mobile Park for the Mariners game.
"It is going to be a mad house up here,” said Donnis Green who is visiting from Park City, Utah.
In Seattle this weekend, there will be a mix of major construction and major events. The lineup includes Mariners games Thursday through Sunday. The Capitol Hill Block Party starts on Friday, and so does Bite of Seattle. Saturday there is a Seattle Storm game, and a Chinatown International District celebration. Taylor Swift fans takeover Lumen Field with concerts on Saturday and Sunday.
"If the Block Party wasn't this weekend with everything going on in Seattle we would be inundated," said Jon Milazzo, co-owner of Retrofit Home.
Instead of being crowded with customers, Milazzo plans to close this weekend because she says the Capitol Hill Block Party has her blocked in.
"We are inside the footprint,” said Milazzo.
When streets close and gates go up for the event, she says she loses business. A promotion at the store offers customers who spend $250 a three-day pass to the Capitol Hill Block Party.
"We get these passes that help to ameliorate some of that loss, but this year they are not selling as well. It is rough. We just close now. We close Saturday and Sunday,” she said.
She plans to avoid Seattle and stay far away from the concerts and construction.
"We consider all of the events, but there is so much construction going on this summer, not only here on 520 but all around the region that we just had to do it. We have got a lot of work to do,” said Steve Peer, a WSDOT spokesperson. "We did make sure that we kept I-90 open, so Taylor Swift fans and other people coming to the Mariners game, they should use I-90."
First responders are having to think about how to get around this weekend with the influx of people. A spokesperson for the medical response company, AMR, says it has a plan for the traffic. It will staff additional ambulances and have those units strategically placed around the city so crews can respond in a timely manner.