Weekend events will impact tourism
LEXINGTON, Ky. (ABC36 NEWS NOW) – Between Railbird Music Festival, the NCAA Baseball Regionals and the KHSAA Track and Field meet, it’s no wonder so many people will be in Lexington this weekend.
“So we’re expecting several hundreds of thousands of people,” said Martina Barksdale, Director of Communications for VisitLex.
Railbird is expected to bring in 40,000 people each day. The festival will be held at Red Mile and features headliners Noah Kahan, Turnpike, Chris Stapleton, and Hozier and other artists.
More than 600 rooms are booked for the weekend for the sports events.
“There is a huge demand for the destination and we saw that years ago, which hotels were being built as we were speaking with lodging issues last year,” said Barksdale. “We’re not running into those issues this year. There’s still Airbnb’s and hotels available this weekend.”
All of that money has an impact on Lexington’s economy and tourism.
“Tourism is a huge driver to better the livelihoods of everyone living in here Lexington. And so, it’s not only good for VisitLex and the city overall but really these small owned businesses that really need the economic impact.”
The Lexington Police Department posted a traffic alert ahead of the weekend to warn drivers on the impact these events will have.
“So I would say leave early and tack at least 30 minutes on to your destination.”
Barksdale advises people to carpool or use ride share, not only to help reduce with traffic, but also for safety.
