Activities, parking info for D-backs Opening Day Street Festival

Combining the Arizona Diamondbacks’ home field Opening Day with the reigning World Series champion Boston Red Sox visiting Chase Field for the first time since 2007 is bound to create hordes of people on Friday.

Doing so on the same night as the final Phoenix Suns home game? Plan your schedule accordingly.

The Opening Day Street Festival begins at noon in front of the Gila River Hotels & Casino Plaza along Jackson and Fourth streets. The roads along that area will be closed.

The festival will feature activities including food trucks, live music and D-backs inflatables.

Arizona pitcher Taijuan Walker will serve free tacos from Tai’s Taco Truck from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Instead of payment, he is asking fans to donate to Helping Hands.

Fans are encouraged to pre-purchase parking tickets, as the allotted areas are expected to fill up. There is a $17 lot on Lincoln Street between Sixth and Seventh streets, a $17 location at the Renaissance Downtown Phoenix on Adams and First streets, and a $41 lot on Jackson and Seventh streets.

The game is scheduled to begin at 4:10 p.m. The first pitch will be thrown by ASU men’s basketball head coach Bobby Hurley.

“Get here early, be in the seats because there’s something special about the presentation of the flag on the field, something about the opening pitch,” D-backs president and CEO Derrick Hall said Thursday on Doug & Wolf on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station. “The national anthem is better than usual and the introductions of the player, you get chills, it’s so great.”

If those chills during player introductions aren’t enough, the first 40,000 fans to enter the stadium will also get 2019 D-backs magnet schedules.

There will also be awards presented to D-backs players during Opening Day. Arizona was named the 2018 Wilson Defensive Team of the Year, an award that will be presented to manager Torey Lovullo. Pitcher Zack Greinke will be receiving a Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Award as well.

Greinke and shortstop Nick Ahmed will both receive Rawlings Gold Glove Awards.

Finally, David Peralta will be presented with the Louisville Silver Slugger Award.

For those at home, the game will be broadcast on ESPN 620 AM.

But as of Thursday morning, tickets were still available as low as $29.

“Fans need to get here and be here,” Hall said. “It doesn’t matter where you’re at the ballpark … make sure that it’s a part of your memory to be at Opening Day.”

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