WACO, Texas — Magnolia's annual "Spring at the Silos" event is back this week and is known to bring in up to 50,000 visitors to the city.
Roads around Magnolia will be closed to make room for vendors, food and music throughout the weekend.
Downtown businesses are celebrating the festival as more foot traffic is expected in shops and restaurants. Carla Pedergraft, assistant director of tourism for the Waco Convention and Visitors' Bureau, said the event is another step towards rebounding the local economy.
"All these people that come from out of town, they're gonna eat at our restaurants, many will stay at our hotels, and we hope that they'll come and look at the rest of Waco," Pendergraft said.
One of those businesses getting a boost just opened its doors on Thursday morning. Theresa Edwards and Cheryl Urbanovsky opened their new "Market on 8th", located across the street from Magnolia at the intersection of 8th Street and Webster Avenue.
"It just kinda happened really quickly, and we just jumped on the train and hung on for the ride," Edwards said.
The market is home to local vendors with coffee, fudge, spices and other goods. After just five and a half weeks, the pair transformed the building into a business of their own.
Another downtown business ready for the increased traffic is Coming Home to Waco, just blocks from the silos.
"Local businesses get to pick up new customers, people that normally wouldn't even know that we were here," manager Sue Damhesel said.
Damhesel said people park and have to walk through downtown to get to the silos, which gives people a chance to find businesses like Coming Home to Waco.
Spring at the Silos is open Thursday through Saturday this week from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day.
