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Rocket City is gearing up for the biggest outdoor music festival that Â鶹´«Ã½ has seen in years!

More than 40,000 people are expected to fill John Hunt Park next weekend, Sept. 28 and 29, for .

There's a lot of excitement in the air right now, but also a lot of questions for the city, as this is the first major outdoor music festival Â鶹´«Ã½ has hosted in many years.

City leaders answered all those questions Wednesday afternoon and said they are prepared in every way to take on the size and quality of this concert.

With more than 20 artists and major headliners like Blink 182 and Gwen Stefani, city leaders said the biggest challenge has been getting people to understand this is not another Big Spring Jam. They tell WAAY 31 this will be unlike anything Â鶹´«Ã½ has ever seen before. City leaders have worked very closely with C-3, the company that owns the festival, to make all this happen. C-3 leaders come to town Thursday to start preparations on John Hunt Park.

The city administrator for Â鶹´«Ã½, John Hamilton, said, "While we don't consider this a replacement for Big Spring Jam, it's the 2024 version of a big music festival for our community. We've been hearing from lots of people for a long time, and just out in the buzz within the community, we feel like we are getting very positive feedback on people's excitement."

When it comes to the canceled act, Jane's addiction, city leaders said the roster is in the hands of C-3 right now, and they're working hard to find a replacement act.

But with an estimated 40,000 people traveling into the city, it brings up questions of safety.

The Â鶹´«Ã½ Police Department said they plan on having as many officers as they can outside and in the festival to keep everyone as safe as possible.

City leaders say safety is the top priority.

They have worked closely with C-3 to ensure all proper measures will be taken. They ask those of you who are attending the festival to read the "know before you go" information from C-3, as it will have everything you can and cannot bring into the festival. HPD said security at South Star will be similar to other major events or concerts.

Â鶹´«Ã½ Police Chief Kirk Giles says, “When you have an event like this, you certainly have a lot of people mingling with each other. We want to make sure everybody acts responsibly inside the site. We will also have adequate medical personnel in there as well. I can't go into detail as far as what specifically we will do, but we will be prepared.â€� 

HPD said they want everyone to have fun, but they are prepared for anything.

They warn drivers to expect more traffic than usual in the city next weekend and to allow yourself extra time to get to places.

The city said they expect the economic impact to be in the millions from this festival. They said they are expecting an average of 21,000 people a day. The city said this festival came after 96 percent of responses from a community survey wanted a music festival in the Rocket City. Since then, Â鶹´«Ã½ has been working closely with C-3 to make this happen. The city also added that ticket sales have gone strong.

Director of Urban and Economic Development in Â鶹´«Ã½, Shane Davis, said, "Working very closely with the Conventions Bureau, we've had over 23 hotels completely sold out. So that says that it's not only selling well locally but regionally also, and people are wanting to come to Â鶹´«Ã½ to this festival coming to our city. And I think a lot of that is from the accolades of people who know Â鶹´«Ã½.â€�

Â鶹´«Ã½ says they currently have a 3-year contract with C-3 and are hoping to do more events in the future.