BATESVILLE, Ind. — Batesville is gearing up for sun without the sun.
The southeast Indiana town is among those in the solar eclipse’s path of totality, a spot where residents and tourists alike can experience four minutes of complete darkness just after 3 p.m.
Ripley County is projecting 10,000 to 25,000 visitors, depending on the weather.
The Smith Hotel has been booked well in advance, with only two available rooms.
“We’re excited about that,” co-owner Peyton Hughes said.
The hotel is planning to have its beer garden set up with a bar and homestyle pizza.
“It should offer a bird’s eye view of the best part of the eclipse,” she said. “We will … keep welcoming guests until it’s full.”
Batesville Mayor John Irrgang said the city has been preparing for “quite some time.”
“I’m looking forward to it because I want to see if everything that people are saying comes to fruition,” he said.
Travel demand nationally is out of this world, with flight bookings up 315% and hotel bookings up 110% when comparing this week to next week.
“We just want people to come and have fun,” he said. “We’re comfortable with our safety measures that we’ve taken. All of our public safety people will be on duty that day.”
The fire department has been consulting with other cities that were in the path of totality in 2017 for the past two years.
The city is prepared to welcome visitors from all over, with calls coming into the chamber of commerce and city from Florida, Colorado and Minnesota, among others.
“We've had telephone calls from people from all over that are going to come and they really want to have that shared experience,” said mayor’s assistant Andrea Wade. “People are coming in from Japan into the region.”
The city has a full “Batesville Blackout” weekend of events planned, all displayed on their website.
Melissa Tucker, Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce director, said everything from restaurants to retailers will be open.
“We hope that they will come and patronize our businesses or small businesses too,” she said. “we're excited to have them.”
At Bird in a Tree Boutique, an eclipse window display is going up. Owner Lori Rennekamp said eclipse t-shirts have been hotter than the sun.
“Some of them haven’t even hit the rack because people see them come in,” she said. “Adult sizes have been the most popular … surprisingly.”
Rennekamp said her small business relies on events like this, and she works to meet community demand for themed apparel.
Success for Batesville, Main Street director Amy Pretzer said, is far beyond the four minutes of totality (although weather will play a big role):
“We saw an influx in our town, that we saw the businesses succeed, and that people were walking into the restaurants and walking into the stores and enjoying what Batesville has to offer,” said Pretzer.
