U2 to Rock Norman This Weekend

By Gan Matthews, NEWS 9

NORMAN, Oklahoma – Many people in Norman are wondering how to spend next weekend, whether they head down to Dallas for OU-Texas, stay in town for the U2 concert or skip both all together.

Whatever your weekend plans are traffic in Norman is changing for U2. No northbound traffic on Asp Street and no thoroughfare through the south end zone. The traffic changes will remain in place through Oct. 22 when regular routes will re-open.

“The upload for this concert is pretty significant, and about 70 semi-trailer trucks are going to come in here and off-load. The bulk of that won't hit until Tuesday, but we needed the traffic flow and the pedestrian traffic flow situated today to get ready for all that," said OU Sports Information Director Kenny Mossman.

The Sunday night concert is not sold out. Tickets are available, but it's hard to find an OU student that's going.

“I don't have tickets, and I don't enjoy U2, so I have to study for a test next week,” said OU student Ellie Cox.

“I'm not going to the concert, my parents are,” said student Kendall Phillips.

“The U2 concert? I have no idea what that is,” Joshua Mack, an OU student said.

Of course, there is that other weekend event in Dallas. It's competing with the concert for student attendance.

"I'm going to Dallas for the game. I might not be going to the game but I'll be there for the fair,” OU student Trayvion Jones said.

For U2 fans, there's a warm-up act they might want to attend Sunday afternoon at St. John's Episcopal Church.

St. John's and two other Episcopal churches in Norman will join together to present a celebratory service featuring the music of U2. The service will be called the U2charist.

Of course there are some who aren't interested in the game or the concert.

“We're going out hiding in a cabin in Missouri for the whole weekend," said OU professor Dr. Tom Boyd.

U2 concert tickets range anywhere from $35 to over $5,000, while OU-Texas tickets on StubHub are priced between $200 to $3,000.