The portion of South Limestone Street between Avenue of Champions and Maxwell Street will be closed from 6-11 p.m. Friday evening for “Rally Time on Lime,” a pep rally sponsored by the South Limestone Merchants Association.

The rally, which is designed to help people get excited for the UK football game versus Louisville on Saturday, will be from 7-10 p.m., said Chrissie Tune, senior marketing specialist for UK Parking.

South Limestone will be closed for the extra two hours to allow for time on either end of the event, Tune said.

The merchants association was created two weeks ago, said Tom Behr, owner of Pazzo’s Pizza Pub.

He said the idea for the pep rally originally came from Kip Cornett, the president of Cornett Advertising, which does some advertising for UK Athletics. Cornett approached UK Athletics with the idea as a fan.

Behr, Cornett and Seth Bennett, owner of Two Keys Tavern, worked together on the rally.

Behr said about half of the merchants on South Limestone are aware of the association, and by next week he hopes to have all of them involved.

The merchants association has worked with both UK and the city government on planning.

He said UK had concerns about safety, and still do, so they will see how it goes.

Behr expects several thousand people to attend and hopes it goes well so they can have future events for basketball or football games.

“We’ve gotten tremendous response,” Behr said.

He also said with more businesses now on Limestone, “it feels like we have a college strip of places to go to.”

According to an email alert from UK Parking, people who travel around or park on North Campus should expect heavier-than-normal congestion during the event.

Those attending the rally may park in UK Parking Structure No. 5 beside Kennedy Book Store on South Limestone. The garage will be open for parking from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.

The street closure will not affect Cats Cruiser bus routes, but Lextran’s Colt Trolley will have modified service.