Hello Route 66 Businesses!
My name is Christy King and I am the Director of Tourism for the Amarillo Convention and Visitor's Bureau. I wanted to send out another update as we are now just a few weeks away from the Amarillo National Bank Route 66 Celebration that is going to be on 6th street June 10th! We have worked with the city on coordinating a full emergency response, sanitation, traffic control plan, and more. I will list out the detailed plans below that are relevant to you.
Date and Time: June 10th from 11am to 7pm
Street Closure/Traffic Control: The main entrance to the festival will be at Georgia street. The street will be closed on the other end at Fairmont, with the stage placed on Marlyand Street facing East. There will be barriers on each cross street, but there will only be full fencing at Georgia and Fairmont. There will be signs placed up and down 6th street 72 hours in advance of the festival stating that any vehicle parked on the street after 2am Friday night (Saturday Morning) will be towed. In essence, once the street closure begins at 3am on June 10th, the police will begin having any cars left on the street towed. Please communicate this to your guests on Friday, June 9th.
Solid Waste: The city will be sweeping the street on Thursday, June 8th, and sweeping again post-festival on June 11th. We will be using our own dumpsters, so no property owners or residents will have to worry about their dumpsters being filled up by festival trash.
Emergency Control: We will have a total of 21 Officers, Fire Department trucks and personnel, and on site EMS.
Environmental Health: Port o Pots will be scattered throughout the festival to avoid in-store use of restrooms.
Parking:
Patrons: We will be directing people to park at Grace Church, and will be running busses back and forth every 15 min to and from the festival. Walkable parking lot options will be listed as the Senior Citizens Building and San Jacinto Elementary. We realize people will still park all over the place as they choose, but we hope this will alleviate at least a large portion of the parking burden.
Store Owners and Vendors: Chip Hunt has been so gracious to offer her parking lot behind 6th Street Antique Mall for store owners and vendors.
Vendors: Vendors will be lined directly south of the middle of the street. One side of the street has to be completely clear for emergency vehicles to be used if necessary. Vendor set up is 8am to 10am. No vehicles will be allowed inside the barricades for load out after 9am. We are offering free vendor spaces for store owners that would like to have merchandise outside as well. We have technically closed vendor applications, but if you haven’t had a chance to apply and would like one, reply to this email and we will see where we can place you.
Entertainment: The host of the Texas Route 66 Festival is our very own Guy Bell! He will be running the show, and his horse may even make an appearance once or twice! The main stage will have Young Elvis, a Pinup Pageant to crown Miss Texas Route 66 2023, a Corndog eating contest, music and more!
We also hope all the restaurants and bars will feature live music either inside or on their outdoor patio! If you are having live music, please send me who will be playing and we will feature them on the event list.
Kids area and activities: San Jacinto Christian Academy Parking Lot.
Car Show-Cornerstone Parking lot.
Food Trucks- Generation Next Parking lot.
Other activities will be lined up and down the street of course!
Again, please let me know if there are any special activations you will be hosting at your store front- whether it be offering champagne while someone shops, or a band… the sky is the limit. Please let me know as soon as you can so we can promote that as part of the Festival as well!
Here is a link to the tentative map for the festival https://drive.google.com/file/d/105lCVYlDj0Ej3kh-gpueEA2L-GnaPual/view?usp=sharing. There may be some adjustments made, but this will give you a good idea of where everything will be.
Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns and I will be happy to help. I will continue to share updates/communications as necessary. We have most everyone’s contact information on 6th with exception of a couple. Feel free to share this with anyone who did not receive it. I am your main festival contact. My email is christy@visitamarillo.com and my cell is 8066780649.
The ten days have several events, and here is a link to the full calendar so far https://www.visitamarillo.com/events/route-66/
If you would like further information about any event in particular, I would be happy to provide you with it!
Thank you all so much for your continued support and passion for Route 66! Lets show the world how amazing our historic strip is!
Sincerely,
