Uptown welcomes visitors from as far as Nashville, TN to watch the eclipse

By Devese “Dee” Ursery

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COLLINSVILLE — Uptown Collinsville was lit with excitement as visitors, equipped with special eyewear, waited to watch a natural phenomena as the moon passed in front of the sun.

A total solar eclipse took place at the Moon’s ascending node on Monday, April 8, 2024, visible across North America and dubbed the Great North American Eclipse.

The solar eclipse was visible in Collinsville with the help of special eyewear a little after 2 p.m,.

Monday, Ar. 8 was the picture perfect day to watch the solar eclipse as over 2,400 visitors converged upon Herald Square. 

President and C.E.O. of Rivers, Routes and Tourism Corry Jobb was really excited about the turnout, expressing enthusiasm as Herald Square began to fill up rather quickly.

“We’re expecting about 2,000 people to show up,” Jobb said. “We figure right now we got about 1,200 (at around 12:15) and it’s still two hours away from the eclipse… we think we’ll probably hit our numbers.”

The Solar Eclipse Viewing Party featured free family activities for visitors of all ages along with local vendors, some of them serving solar eclipse-themed drinks and treats. Old Herald Brewery and Distillery brewed a special beer, Solar Shandy just for this occasion. They also joined forces with Big Muddy Brewery to create a Dark Noon Whiskey. That’s two unique drinks to honor the eclipse.

Councilwoman Donna Green and Uptown Scoops were in attendance serving up their eclipse-themed frozen custard specialty – the Moon Pie Custard. This Banana Cream Custard is paired with Moon Pie pieces and drizzled with a chocolate hard shell.

Besides Old Herald’s and Uptown Scoops, Jobb also spoke of other vendors that participated, as well as featured activities at the event.

“We got the Bubble Bus here with bubbles for the kids. We got free face painting. We’re gonna have two performances of a flamethrower, he’s going to be blowing fire, that will be at 1:15 p.m. right before the eclipse takes place,” Jobb said. “We also have AP Cigars, Moon Drops, which is a CBD (without THC) Seltzer and we have the Collinsville Park District, Willoughby Farms, and Treehouse Wildlife. Local and Regional businesses are helping today to provide entertainment and products for our guests.”

Jobb said that they also had a viewing party during the last solar eclipse that was back in 2017 and they wanted to do it again, but make sure that the Collinsville community had a place to go where they didn’t have to drive too far. He also said that people from as far Nashville, Tennessee, as well as all over the Midwest came to Collinsville to take in this natural phenomenon.  

“It’s a great opportunity for the people to stay closer to home and maybe not want to fight the crowd or the traffic,” Jobb said. “But again we people from here from Nashville, Tennessee, it’s another venue for people to come experience the eclipse and they don’t have to go too far.”