Grizzly Fest will soon rock Fresno's Woodward Park

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- It's just about that time of year again.

In less than two weeks, Grizzly Fest is expected to bring music fans from around the globe to Northeast Fresno.

Woodward Park is the new home for the two-day event that combines big-name musical acts with all things art.

Combining performers like Snoop Dogg with an eclectic mix of entertainment is the job of Aren Hekimian.

"From the United States, Canada, Europe people are literally flying in from all over the world to experience the festival and it's our job to showcase Fresno in the best possible light," said Hekimian. He has spent the past eight months carefully organizing the music festival.

Hekimian was at Woodward Park Tuesday surveying the area where Grizzly Fest will take place.

"The show is not at the amphitheater, this show is over 30 acres of park grounds."

Plenty of room for the thousands of visitors expected to attend Woodward Park over the two-day event.

2,500 Parking stalls inside Woodward will be available but there is also talk of setting up the vacant lot across the street in case of overflow.

Music fans will not be allowed to park in the adjacent neighborhoods and to minimize congestion in the area, a number of shuttle services have been set up across the city.

"We have shuttles coming from Fresno State and Downtown Fresno so people can park in the spiral garage Downtown right by the baseball park and get shuttles to and from every 30 minutes."

But not everyone is thrilled with the two-day music event playing in their backyard. Some neighbors tell Action News they have concerns for the potential of noise pollution coming from the park during Grizzly Fest.

That's when I had the problem, that it was going to be here, I originally heard it was going to be at Grizzly Stadium (Chuckchansi Park) and then they switched it to here and I heard it was all about the money," said Bob Bruno.

No doubt money is a factor for organizers, but no one can deny the amount of revenue the city stands to make from the event.

"We're probably going to see somewhere around $3-to-4 million in impact, if not more, off of this event that comes and gets generated into our community. Hotels, gas, food, airport fees, you name it. When people come into this market and spend money it goes back into our community."

Grizzly Fest runs May 18 and 19 from 2 pm until midnight.

General admission tickets are still available.