SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- While the City of Springfield has been preparing for the tens of thousands of people who will be downtown for the Birthplace of Route 66 Festival, nearby bars and restaurants have been getting ready too.

"We've done some extra prep. I've got some great burger deals going on. $5 burgers, $5 smoked sandwiches. I've got tons of water bottles that way. People, when they're out and about, they can stop and grab something to go really quick and keep enjoying the festival," Jared Stevenson, owner of Harbells said. "We did everything early this week, stocked up on everything went a little above and beyond what we usually do, but we're kind of used to this."

Hilary Lopez, a manager at 417 Taphouse, says the festival arrived at the right time.

"Right now with the summertime, it's kind of our dead season with a lot of the college kids back home, so our crowd is halfway missing. It's definitely nice that we're going to have a big array of not only just new people, but different people and then also help the business a little bit," Lopez said. "We have food. We have a full kitchen, we have a fully loaded bar, we have a lot of different alcohol options. Every week we do change our inventory as far as what we have, like our beverage options, we're always trying to make sure we keep it different."

Lopez says they're preparing a patio party for any patrons out late tonight.

"Today we're doing a patio party tonight. It starts at 10 to 2 a.m. and it's going to be a full hibachi grill that comes out, so that's something that we've brought for the weekend is to have as a later option," Lopez said.

Another factor is the first preseason game for the Kansas City Chiefs, set for kickoff Saturday night at 6 p.m. on KOZL.

"We're expecting a full house, especially first preseason game of the year. People are excited and ready to come watch some football," Stevenson said.

"I feel like any time we have any of our big sports events, it definitely helps us a little bit more because people are usually wanting to watch a game and have a drink at the same time," Lopez said.

Stevenson says despite the festival starting Thursday night, he's already met several people, not only from out-of-state but outside the U.S.

"We've had a lot of Canadians here this week, which has been fun. We've had some German people, some people from Spain. We've had some people from China here all this week," Stevenson said. "They've come into town earlier, they're staying at the local hotels and so it's just great seeing some diversity down here and just fun meeting people."

The two say the festival is a good boost for business and the downtown scene overall.

"It's such a benefit. It's one that it looks great. It just looks great with all the old cars and stuff out here, and it just exposes downtown more, and that's what we want, not just for me, but for every business down here," Stevenson said. "We want to show people that downtown is clean, downtown, safe again. You know, we've got great parking, we've got great bars, we've got great businesses down here. So it just draws more attention."

"It's always cool to see what kind of crowds we get and what kind of people we get a lot of different stories, different backgrounds. I actually really enjoy when we have such a large, you know, event that's going to have people from just all over," Lopez said. "It also gets us on the map a little bit more and more people come here and they're, you know, maybe they're from out of state and they notice this little bitty bar here that just sticks out and is a little bit different."

The Birthplace of Route 66 Festival runs through Saturday night.

News Source : https://www.ozarksfirst.com/news/downtown-springfield-spots-ready-for-weekend-of-festival-goers/