MONTREAL - The largest concerts of the summer take place July 8 and 9, but getting to the venue to see U2 may be a problem.
Getting out will require patience too: officials are warning it may take three hours to leave the Hippodrome site.
The STM is taking steps to minimize the difficulties 160,000 people will experience getting to the two shows at the Hippodrome.
Parking at the former Blue Bonnets racetrack will be restricted, several streets in the neighbourhood will be closed to drivers, and the Jean-Talon exits on the Decarie Expressway will be closed.
"It will not be an easy situation and it's not every business owner who can actually profit from this opportunity," said Alain Labelle of the STM.
The city and concert promoters are encouraging people to take public transit instead.
"Imagine if the jazz festival would only have one metro station with only one door to enter. That's why we put on extra services," said Labelle.
Unlike the Olympic stadium and other venues, Blue Bonnets is not very well serviced by public transit. The Namur metro station is the closest to the actual venue, but only has one entrance.
To minimize the inconvenience 120 shuttle buses will be on hand to bring people from Namur to Jean-Talon metro on the blue line.
Day passes for the weekend will only cost $5 instead of the usual $8.
The STM is also adding 200 extra buses for people who would rather travel aboveground to and from the concert.
600 extra employees will be working on the weekend to help people get from home to the show and back.
The STM expects adding the services will cost somewhere around $800,000, but concert-goers are expected to spend $3 million in Montreal that weekend.
But many businesses will not earn anything from tourists.
Michel Azran, the owner of St. Laurent Coiffure, says he will lose thousands of dollars because of the concerts.
"We have to close those two days. It's a Friday and a Saturday, those are our busiest days, and we're not too happy about it," said Azran.
He is trying to get the city to compensate for his losses, and he is worried about vandalism.
"80, 000 people two days in a row, that's a lot of people," said Azran.
Staging
Construction crews at the Hippodrome are construction seating from scratch -- seating that will be removed once the shows are over.
Both shows will also be preceded by massive tailgate parties at the former racetrack.
Every ticket for both shows sold out long ago.
The concerts were originally scheduled for 2010, but had to be rescheduled when U2 singer Bono had emergency back surgery in May 2010.
