What's different this cycle is volume. More permitted dates means more weekends where JFK Drive goes partial-closure and Crossover Drive backs up from Fulton to Lincoln. If you're heading into the park on a show day for anything other than the concert — Stow Lake, the Conservatory of Flowers, the Dutch Windmill end — enter from Skyline or Crossover off Lincoln, not from Stanyan or 8th Avenue, which bottleneck fast. BART to Carl and Cole (N-Judah from Civic Center) and walking in from the east side is the move for the concert itself; parking structures at Fulton and 10th fill by noon on big days.

If you've got two hours on a non-show weekend, the park is genuinely easier to move through now that JFK Drive east of Crossover stays car-free on weekends — lock in the Panhandle entrance, grab coffee at Sandbox Bakery on Fell, and you're in the park in under ten minutes flat.