BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Thousands of people are expected to converge on northern Vermont on April 8 for the rare opportunity to witness a total solar eclipse. Burlington is in the path of totality and will be in darkness for about 3 minutes and 15 seconds. Now, the city is busy getting ready to celebrate the eclipse and handle the anticipated influx of visitors.
“We are thrilled actually that we get a chance to show off the Burlington area,” said Zach Williamson, the festival and event director at Burlington City Arts.
BCA is leading the city’s planning and organizing for the eclipse which is expected to bring thousands of people to the Queen City.
“We are creating very specific viewing sites here in Burlington for both the residents and visitors to go to,” Williamson said.
That includes city-planned events with live entertainment at Waterfront Park, Battery Park, Oakledge Park, City Hall Park and Roosevelt Park.
To avoid traffic jams and make sure people can safely move around on foot on the day of the eclipse, the city is creating a car-free zone, closing several streets, including sections of Main, College and Battery streets. In addition, the beltline will be closed to be used for parking, with buses shuttling people to events.
“A significant closure– but it will allow people to congregate safely down there,” Williamson said.
The ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain– Burlington’s science center– is getting ready, as well. I met Nina Ridhibhinyo, the director of programs and exhibits for ECHO, at ECHO’S warehouse where they are getting ready to send out 50 eclipse kits to libraries and schools.
“So they can host their own eclipse programming and their own eclipse event,” Ridhibhinyo said.
But on eclipse day, ECHO will be ready, hosting events all day at their flagship building and staffing the city’s event on the waterfront with hands-on activities.
“We will be having all sorts of eclipse excitement here at ECHO, interactive exhibits and programming, so we hope folks will come down,” Ridhibhinyo said.
Businesses like the Burlington Bay Market and Cafe will be in the middle of all the excitement. The neighborhood store sits where streets will be closed and many people are expected to pass on their way to the waterfront. They say they are prepping like it’s a busy summer day.
“We are going to stock up on everything like we would for a July day, which we never would do in April,” said Al Gobeille of the Burlington Bay Market and Cafe.
The city is urging other businesses to prepare to handle the surge of visitors.
“We are really encouraging restaurants in particular– which might be closed on Sundays and Mondays regularly– to make the effort to stay open to accommodate all of these people. If you only serve dinner, maybe you want to consider serving lunch and dinner,” Williamson said.