On the web
For ongoing updates and information about the 2024 Solar Eclipse, including access to lodging registration forms, visit vincenneseclipse.com.
Local eclipse director Sarah Wolfe says she and community leaders are ramping up efforts to prepare for next year’s otherworldly event, which promises to bring a flood of tourists to Knox County.
“Some people are asking if that many people are really going to come here, and we can definitively say ‘yes, yes they are.
“Our hotels and Airbnb’s are already booked for that weekend,” she said.
After the last solar eclipse in 2017, local leaders looked ahead to the next, set for April 8, 2024.
Hopkinsville, Kentucky, which was on the path of totality in 2017, drew upwards of 150,000 people.
Next spring Vincennes will be on the path of totality, and with the longest darkness in the state at just over four minutes.
With an unprecedented influx of visitors expected in April, Wolfe was tapped to lead the charge.
Wolfe, alongside a substantial eclipse committee, have been working diligently to be ready for the big show next year.
She says committee members have begun doing community outreach to ensure local residents are informed about what to expect when the crowds arrive for the big event.
“Mostly we need people to start informing themselves with the information we’re putting out there, and then we can really move onto planning and implementation,” Wolfe said.
A major component of that plan involves traffic management and logistics.
“We simply don’t have the resources to manage all the traffic we’re going to have, so we will be looking for volunteers to help with the logistics of that,” she said, noting they would receive significant training.
Another concern, she says, is a lack of lodging available for the thousands of people expected to hit Knox County the weekend of the Solar Eclipse.
With most rooms in the area already reserved, Wolfe says organizers are hoping local residents and business owners will consider how they might be able to use their private properties to help with the lodging shortage.
“We have posted lodging registration forms on our website, so people can tell us what they are offering — be it tent camping spaces, RV camping, or renting out their property on sites like Airbnb or Vrbo — so we know how many new spots we have to market,” she said.
While organizing something of such size and scope has had its ups and downs, Wolfe says there have been some really rewarding developments.
One of the most exciting pieces of news, she says, is that Fred Espenak, a retired astrophysicist from NASA, has just signed on to visit Vincennes two months ahead of the eclipse to provide local residents his professional insights.
Espenak, who has spent his retirement traveling the world and chasing eclipses, will offer two lectures on Feb. 8, 2024, at the Red Skelton Performing Arts Center.
“I just decided to email him, even though I suspected that I sounded like a goofball, but he responded with his availability, which just happens to be my birthday,” Wolfe said, excited by the cosmic coincidence. “His visit should work up some excitement for the eclipse — it’s a cool thing.”
Wolfe says organizers are also hoping the excitement continues to build as a new line of eclipse merchandise goes up for sale later this week.
“We’ll have things like shirts, posters, key chains, and bookmarks available for purchase inside the Elihu Stout Building (702 Main St.),” she said.
Too, Wolfe says, traffic and safety plans are beginning to take shape, beginning with an emergency text line that tourists and locals can use to get important information, including alternate street routes when necessary.
“We have an ER text line now, thanks to John Streeter,” she said of the director of the Knox County Emergency Management Agency. “This is a one-way information portal, and people can text eclipse 2024 to 78015 for updated information before and during the event.”
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