Knoxville, TN (WOKI) Looking for signs of festival season? You’ll find two in downtown this weekend: the Market Street pedestrian zone reopens Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, and the Mardi Growl Parade is Saturday, March 1, 2025.

The City installed new retractable bollards at the end of 2024 that make it easier and more cost efficient for crews to close and reopen the roads to vehicles.

These streets will be open for pedestrian-only traffic at 6 p.m. on Friday and reopen at 6 p.m. on Sunday, every weekend for the rest of the year (unless otherwise notified): 

• Market Street between Union and Clinch avenues
• Union Avenue between Walnut and Gay streets 

Young-Williams Animal Center’s Mardi Growl Parade, on Saturday, March 1, steps off at 11 a.m. from the staging area on Depot Street. The route continues to Gay Street, over the viaduct, right on Jackson Avenue to World’s Fair Park Drive and onto the Performance Lawn. 

On-street parking along the parade route closes at 6 a.m. and reopens at noon. Roads for the parade staging area will be closed 7 a.m. to noon. 

• Depot Avenue between Williams and Gay streets
• Williams Street between the Alley and Depot Avenue 

World’s Fair Park Drive between Clinch and Grand avenues will be closed from 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. for the event. 

Visitors are reminded to pick up after their pets; waste bags and garbage cans are located in multiple locations in downtown.  Above portion is a Press release from the City of Knoxville

The City of Knoxville has wrapped up a $90,000 project to make walking safer downtown near Market Square.

The retractable bollards, or steel barriers, were installed along Market Street from Clinch Avenue to Market Square and Union Street from Walnut to Gay streets.

Starting this weekend and on every weekend for the rest of the year, those streets will be open for pedestrian-only traffic from 6 p.m. on Friday to 6 p.m. on Sunday.