On April 8, an estimated 4,000 people gathered at Oxford Memorial Park and Uptown Park to view the eclipse, according to Enjoy Oxford operations manager Sally Roi.
Crowds for the eclipse were expected to be substantial. Visitors from as far as Arizona, Oregon, Virginia and Pennsylvania came to Oxford, said Roi.
“We had some people say that they had family in the area, even from Cincinnati that came up to Oxford,” said Roi. “They knew that this would be a great place to view [the eclipse].”
The manager of Gaslight Brewhouse, Zoe Plfum, said that the restaurant was much busier than usual, even in the days prior to the eclipse.
“Normally on Monday we are not busy at all,” said Plfum. “[But this] Monday, we had about 15 people lined-up outside the door at 11 a.m. before we opened.”
The restaurant prepared by having more staff and enough product on-hand. Even with the preparation, the influx of people in town for the events prompted the restaurant to run out of items including pizza, pasta and chicken by Monday.
“We did promotions for different drinks [for the eclipse], which I feel like that helped people come in,” Plfum said. “We just had a lot of business.”
The Elms Hotel sold out of rooms on Sunday and only a few rooms were vacant on Monday, according to hotel manager Casy Leab.
“It was crazy. It was definitely something out of the normal,” said Leab. “[Sunday and Monday] are the days of the week we’re hardly ever sold out. We might have five rooms sold on those days and during the weekday[s]. For this to happen, it impacted us greatly and for the better too.”
Leab also works at the Hampton Inn in town, which also had very few vacancies.
“I think there was one room that didn’t sell Sunday night and two rooms Monday that we didn’t sell,” said Leab. “The Hampton is kind of busier than the Elms because it’s a franchise hotel, but even then with the solar eclipse on a Sunday [and] Monday, we’re never that full.”
Crowds Uptown began to gather on Monday around 11 a.m., laying out blankets to prepare for viewing.
By 1 p.m., people were buzzing with excitement, walking around, enjoying food trucks, drinks and a live band. In the seconds before totality at 3:08 p.m., crowds began to cheer with excitement.
“Everyone was there for one purpose, to see this once in a lifetime event,” Roi said. “It’s really hard to describe that feeling of everybody cheering when it actually happened. They all wanted to see this one big event and everybody was just so loving and caring and excited to be here.”
