NASHVILLE — Tourists are making a return to Music City and it has some groups working around the clock to prepare for what could be thousands more with the coming holidays.
When you ask around Broadway, the question where are you from presents some interesting responses? It’s not unusual to see people visiting from all over the world, but it’s why they’re visiting that makes the difference this time around.
We found Sara Sarbinski visiting from Minnesota and Sara Sarbinski from Wisconsin. Neither of which had ever traveled to Nashville and figured what better detour than Broadway.
While these aren’t the packed streets they’ve heard so much about, it’s still a lot more than they expect back home.
“It’s a lot more open here. Minnesota is still pretty closed up,” said Sarbinski.
COVID-19 still has much of the country under lock down, which brings us to Music City where people say they’re choosing Nashville because of what they can do. Alfrena Moosa is visiting from Miami and jumped at the opportunity to see family here in Nashville.
“It’s time to get out of that COVID-19 and enjoy life outside,” said Moosa.
In the past several weeks, Nashville has slowly opened their doors and what followed, didn’t surprise Butch Spyridon, President and CEO of Visit Music City.
He says knowing that they could see thousands choosing Nashville as a destination for the 4th of July weekend, they’ve already made arrangements.
Like hosting a one hour TV special, with only a short fireworks display.
“What was normally a half hour fireworks show is a few minutes and not near the impact of what we did in the past,” said Spyridon.
Last year, more than 343,000 people packed downtown on the 4th. This year, a much different approach as the group closed down the family fun zone and street concerts to limit the number of people walking around Broadway.
Spyridon says this year’s short celebration, will instead focus on getting people registered to vote. As he understands the country is still tackling issues of racial discrimination, Spyridon says he wants to be sensitive to the matter and not make light of the importance behind the movement.
“We want to observe the day. We’re trying to open back up and we’re trying to draw some visitation, but we’re trying to draw it slowly, responsibly and carefully,” said Spyridon.
