SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — The Birthplace of Route 66 Festival is back through Saturday night.

A spokesperson for the City of Springfield says they try to add new things to the event each year.

"The new event this year is Chevy Evolution, which is a new car show inside the Expo Center. So if it gets a little hot, you can go in there and cool off and see some of the new line of SUVs, as well as a continuation of the cornhole tournament," Cora Scott said. "We've added significant, more entertainment. We've got everything from rap, country, rock and roll, all different types of music on three different stages. We're continuing to evolve this into more of a music festival, in addition to, of course, the hundreds of classic cars."

Scott says the average 3-day attendance is around 65,000 people.

"Traditionally we have visitors from all over the world that come through. A lot of them are already traveling down Route 66, but last year we had representatives from 13 different countries and almost all 50 states," Scott said. "I think people take for granted that Route 66 still is a tourist destination all on its own, so we have a significant amount people coming through all the time, but our festival is kind of growing in scope as well."

The event is planned months in advance, featuring dozens of vendors, some local and some out-of-state.

"We now plan and organize this year round so it's so popular and it's grown so much in size and scope," Scott said. "We have dozens of vendors and also we also promote going to the brick-and-mortar locations downtown as well. One of the main goals is to get people to see Springfield's downtown and recognize how vibrant it is and come back because so many visitors come during this weekend."

Last year, event officials received backlash from some downtown businesses from how the road closures and traffic impacted their sales negatively.

Scott says that was addressed before the first 'Road Closed' sign was put on the ground.

"We recognize that when you close off streets, it does create kind of a push and pull with the businesses that are downtown, but we had an open meeting for all of the businesses prior to the festival this year. We took ideas. We heard that some were struggling during the festival, but others were having record weekends," Scott said. "We shared ideas on how you can maximize the festival and kind of mitigate any downside. We opened an area behind the stage called the Jefferson Junction, and it's a downtown showcase, and we've allowed downtown business owners to come and participate at no costs in that."

One group showcasing their talents this weekend is Erwin Urias and his family, and their 'Globe of Death' motorcycle show.

"My brother Melvin and I have been doing this for many years. We are fourth-generation motorcycle riders," Urias said.

Erwin and his brother are also joined by Erwin's wife, daughter and Melvin's fiancé and her sister.

"For us, being a part of something, being here at the birthplace of [Route 66] is great to be able to bring our motorcycle act and be, you know, intertwined with what Route 66 is great," Urias said.

OzarksFirst chatted with Erwin about the setup of the Globe of Death, which was going on this afternoon.

"Our globe that we ride in is 16 feet in diameter and weighs approximately 6,000 lbs. It's broken up into a total of 18 pieces, kind of like taking a slice of orange apart. We do put it up by hand and it takes about 4 hours of hard labor to kind of get it up and stuff like that. We do it ourselves to ensure that all the safety requirements that we need for it are there," Urias said. "Every time that we come, we find something new, either whether it's an eatery or something new to see around the city that's been improved and it's just, you know, redone and stuff like that."

Scott says there's a bit of a friendly rivalry with Tusla, Oklahoma over the term 'Birthplace' when referring to Route 66, but she says Tulsa has recently given up the fight.

"We're the birthplace of Route 66, that it's right here at the Colonial Hotel at Saint Louis and Jefferson, where officials sent out a telegram to the feds saying, 'let's make sure this goes through Springfield, Missouri, and let's call it Route 66," Scott said. "I got a letter from Tulsa wanting a quote from the 'Birthplace of Route 66', because they're naming themselves with the 'Capital of [Route] 66', so we feel that they've conceded the birthplace, which is rightly so, because the telegram came from here and it's a friendly little rivalry."

News Source : https://www.ozarksfirst.com/news/birthplace-of-route-66-festival-expects-thousands-this-weekend/