Thousands of people are expected to congregate in a closed-off lower Octagon for the All Blacks and Springboks test in Dunedin next Saturday.
Marquees will be set up in the lower half of the Octagon, which will be closed to traffic between 6.30am on match day and 10am on Sunday.
Lower Stuart St, from the Octagon to Moray Pl, will also be closed.
The Lower Octagon Licensed Forum was granted resource consent by the Dunedin City Council to close the area and erect marquees for tabled seating and entertainment.
Spokesman Grant Ellis said the result would be similar to when the Octagon was transformed during last year's Rugby World Cup, and more recently for St Patrick's Day.
Licensed premises had applied for extensions to serve alcohol until 2am on Sunday.
At least nine bars and restaurants in the cordoned area had large-screen televisions to show the Forsyth Barr Stadium match live.
Otago Boys' High School pupils would also hold a sausage sizzle and barbecue fundraiser in the Octagon on Saturday night, Mr Ellis said.
"There's about 15,000 coming into the city from at least three hours away just for the rugby, and what traditionally happens is about 30% end up in the Octagon," he said.
He expected the number of people in the lower Octagon to swell from about 2500 during the day to about 4000 after the test.
"We usually hit capacity about 11pm, when all the places are full and there are queues everywhere." DCC community events co-ordinator Marilyn Anderson said the council had "very little" involvement in relation to what was happening around town for the test match, but it had organised live music in the Octagon for the few hours before the stadium gates opened.
Local bands and musicians would perform between 2.30pm and 5pm, she said.
Citibus and Dunedin Venues Management Ltd were running 12 shuttle buses from the Octagon to the stadium between 4.20pm and 7pm next Saturday, and another 15 shuttle buses, each with 60 seats, would depart the stadium post-game and drop passengers at the Octagon.
In total, the service could accommodate 1620 people and would be free to ticket holders.
