Last night’s headlining performance by the B-52s deserves a lot of superlatives.

In my three years of attending the festival, it was the night of the most dancing, the most young people (tied, perhaps, with Daughtry in 2007), the most upbeat music and the most references to poodles and stony crustaceans.

In short, it was a hoot.

As awesome as it was to get caught up in songs about sex and parties, what really impressed me was something comparably mundane — the traffic flow.

While most of us on either side of Riverfront Parkway were dancing and having fun, there was a wide swath of the parkway with people actually able to pass by without having to contort their bodies and collide with one another.

Every year, the section of Riverfront Parkway in front of the Coke Stage gets stuffed like a sausage with a near-impenetrable mass of people, but I have to hand it to Friends at the Festival because this year, that problem was almost nonexistent.

After the B-52s finished their encore of “Rock Lobster,” the crowds dispersed in two directions, either leaving the grounds altogether or making their way to the TVA Showcase to hear The Travelin’ McCourys and a special guest (who didn’t show). Thanks to the band of accessible street, the two passed each other without any snarls that I could see.

I first noticed the change during opening night of Riverbend. Huge crowds gathered to watch Willie Nelson, and I was still able to traverse the Parkway unimpeded. I thought it was a fluke. After last night, I’m convinced they’ve all but solved the issue.

I’m not sure what did the trick. Maybe it was moving the TVA Showcase Stage to where the Bud Light Stage was last year. Maybe it was moving Bud Light down to the Olgiati Bridge. Maybe people are just being more conscientious of not blocking the thoroughfare. Maybe there are just fewer people than years past.

Whatever the reason, I’ve not felt claustrophobic once this year.

That’s such a boon because it’s really affected my headliner experience in the past. There’s nothing quite as unenjoyable as being squished into a hot mass of people between sweaty bodies, in constant danger of being splattered with fabric-staining gobs of sugar, mustard or ... stuff.

Granted, we’ve got two more headliners to go, Montgomery Gentry tonight and Little Richard tomorrow, but even if the blockage reappears, seven out of nine days isn’t bad.

E-mail Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com