Gatesville already welcoming international visitors a week before eclipse
GATESVILLE, Texas (KWTX) - Gatesville is one of the several Central Texas cities that has been preparing to welcome the masses for the Great American Eclipse, and the city is already welcoming international visitors a week before the event.
“We already have people here from Canada, from Brazil,” Cheri Shepherd, the Special Events Coordinator with the city, said. “We’re hearing from people from all over the world, France, England, Japan. That’s a really big deal for Gatesville to have all those visitors, and we’re anxious to show them what a welcoming community we are.”
Shepherd said more visitors from London, Norway and across the U.S. are expected to find their spot for the once-in-a-lifetime experience in Gatesville.
Higginbotham Brothers, a hardware store in Gatesville, installed huge letters, spelling out, ‘Gatesville’ for a photo op for visitors and residents.
“We’re always happy at Higginbotham’s to serve and help and do anything we can for donations,” employees said. “It took a little bit to make it, but we’re very happy and very pleased with the way it came out.”
Shepherd said, because the city is expecting to double or even triple their population for the eclipse, the city planned a free block party, the Block Out the Sun Party.
“What we wanted to do is to give not just our residents and the people in the surrounding area, but especially our visitors who are coming from all over the world, a little taste of small town Texas” Shepherd said. “We’re going to have some things here that show part of our culture, and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
The festival will feature a mixture of events, entertainment, food as well as an art show.
“We have many children from Gatesville Gifted and Talented...all of them have a different eye,” Chairperson of the Art Show, Yvonne Williams, said. “We have a few to show here [Leairds Furniture] from the elementary. Art teachers ended up doing education on it...so they got some education out of it, of how the eclipse works and everything. I also have a few adults that have entered the art show, and we have about eight artists that’s in the community.”
The city said it will start setting up for the big event Friday night into Saturday morning.
“It’s going to be a lot of work from Friday night till Saturday morning to get it all ready,” Shepherd said. “Then we just open floodgates at 10 a.m. Saturday morning, and we welcome everybody to come on out.”
People can also get a taste of the history of Texas at the Coryell County Museum a few blocks from the Block Out the Sun Party.
Many residents, volunteers, kids and city staff have put their ‘all’ into making sure visitor’s time in Gatesville is unforgettable.
Copyright 2024 KWTX. All rights reserved.
