by Paul Bean

Last night, the Burlington City Council received a presentation from officials on the city’s plan for the April 8th total Solar Eclipse. Burlington is expecting many visitors for the celestial event.

“Its a delight to be here with all of you, and it’s a delight to be a part of this city that is going to throw out the biggest red carpet we’ve ever thrown out for welcoming the perhaps the 100,000-150,000+ people who will come through our community during that long weekend,” said Doreen Craft, Burlington City Arts Director. 

Given all of the problems Burlington has been facing in recent times, a once in a lifetime event is taking place, and Burlingtonians are looking forward to a positive, uplifting celebration in their city. 

“There’s been a significant amount of work that has been done to ensure, first of all, that public safety is at the top of our list, both for our community and our visitors,” said Craft. Considering the increase in crime, homelessness, and substance abuse within Burlington, this concern is not taken lightly by city officials.

“One thing that we were clear on is that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to really showcase Burlington. It’s tricky, some of the media out there and some of the messaging is like ‘Burlington is going to be chaos, don’t come here!’ and we want to strike a balance by actually welcoming a lot of people here and making it a safe experience for the residents and our visitors,” said Zach Williamson, Burlington Festival and Event Director.

The City of Burlington and a large chunk of Vermont is in the “path of totality” for this event, meaning there will be 3 minutes of total eclipse. Partial eclipse will begin at 2:14pm, at 3:26pm we will enter “total eclipse” for 3 minutes, and at 4:37pm the event will end. 

One of the biggest concerns is of course the weather. “Do you know anything about the weather on those three days?” joked counselor Ali Dieng. “It’s going to be gorgeous… it’s going to be clear and sunny.. you’re going to see it without a problem,” Williamson joked back. 

Some cool sights and sounds to expect during the eclipse? You can of course expect darkness mid-day, (so does that mean cars on interstate 89 are just going to pull over on the side of the road)? You can expect to see activity from nocturnal animals, crickets and peepers might start making noise. If we have a clear day (geoengineers permitting) you might be able to see stars and planets. 

There are tons of events taking place in the downtown area. A full list can be found here along with road closures, viewing areas, and merchandise for the event.