I’ve never before heard the music of the Cleveland Orchestra. I’ve certainly never heard them perform the fourth movement from Motzart’s Symphony No. 41—better known as “Jupiter.” But that will change on April 7, when I join tens of thousands of others at the city’s Great Lakes Science Center where the orchestra will be featured as just one part of a three-day festival built around the next day’s solar eclipse, which will reach totality over Cleveland just after 3:13 p.m. CDT.
On April 8, the eclipse’s path of totality will cross 15 states and hundreds of cities and towns from southwest Texas to northeastern Maine before passing into Canada, and will be visible to an estimated 31 million Americans. That’s a lot of people who will take in the great sky show, and local communities are gearing up—and, in many cases, cashing in. Up to four million people are expected to travel to towns within the band of totality, with airline tickets, hotel accommodations, meals, and other travel-related expenses expected to inject up to $1 billion into the U.S. economy, according to Forbes.
All by itself, Johnson County, Ind., is expecting to reap up to $25 million before the event is over, with some hotels spiking their prices to $1,000 per night. The Niagara Falls region is looking for a smaller but still considerable $1 million haul. Arkansas is not projecting just how big a payday April 8 will be, but it does expect 1.5 million visitors—briefly increasing the state’s population of 3 million by 50%. In an official statement released in December 2023, the state legislature called the eclipse “the largest tourism event in Arkansas history.”
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Preparing for this kind of influx doesn’t just earn money but costs it too.. In New York State, Erie County is buying $100,000 worth of eclipse glasses to help protect visitors’ eyes as the sun slowly vanishes and reappears. In the state’s Chautauqua County,…
