 session. If you don't know this or what to expect on Monday, April 8th, you're in exactly the right place. We have an incredible panel tonight that's gonna give you a ton of information about the days leading up to and on the total solar eclipse. We're gonna kick things off with Ellen from our NASA EPSCORE representative from the University of Vermont. She's gonna talk about all the science behind what a total solar eclipse is, what's happening up in space, and what we can experience here in Burlington, Vermont on that date. Next, Zach is gonna talk all about the city preparedness plan, where folks will be parking, the tens of thousands of visitors that we anticipate coming that day, the road closures in Burlington that day, the safety precautions we've taken, and of course the importance of eclipse glasses. Then Zach and I are gonna talk about all the city programming leading up to the event on April 8th, including our totality talks, which kick off a week from today right here in Contoy's Auditorium, as well as the amazing programming that other Burlington businesses and community partners are putting on. Then KJ and Zach are gonna talk all about the official viewing sites. There are six of them all throughout Burlington and what you can expect at each of them. Jess and John are gonna talk about where you can find all that information after today and how to stay up to date, and they're also gonna talk about our totally rad totality swag and where you can purchase it. For those of you that are here tonight right there in the back corner, we have t-shirts and sweatshirts and a whole bunch of other awesome stuff for sale. I'm gonna take a few moments to just thank all the organizations and sponsors that have made all of this programming possible. The Echo Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Hello Burlington, the University of Vermont, First Unitarian Universalist Church, Main Street Landing, Vermont International Film Foundation, Burlington Beer Company, Northfield Savings Bank, Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport, Hotel Vermont, Courtyard Burlington Marriott, Hilton Garden Inn, Hilton Burlington Lake Champlain are presenting media sponsored WCAX and media sponsored Seven Days. And with that we're gonna get this night kicked off. Ellen, join me up here and tell us all about what it means to experience a total solar eclipse. Thank you so much for having me and thank you so much for coming. I'm just gonna go really brief through why eclipses happen and what's really special about this one besides the fact that it's happening here. I think I might have just done a million slides, but there are three types of solar eclipses. The total eclipse which is what's happening in April. That's the most dramatic one. Then we have the annual eclipse where the moon does cover the center of the sun but not the whole sun giving you the ring of fire and a partial eclipse where we don't cover the whole sun at all. Now the reason that we end up with these different types of eclipses all comes down to the moon and its orbit. So the moon has an elliptical orbit around Earth which means sometimes it's gonna be really close to us so it looks pretty big. Sometimes it's gonna be really far away from us which means it's gonna look smaller. And that difference in where the moon is in relation to us in that orbit gives us those annular and total eclipses. So when it's really far away from us and it looks smaller it can't cover the whole sun so we get an annular eclipse. But when it's closer to us in its orbit it looks bigger and it does cover the whole sun and we get the really cool total solar eclipse which is what you're going to see on April 8th. Now these, there it goes. It's just not stopping. Oh wow that was fixed immediately and I guarantee I'm not the one who fixed that. Nice. So these photos are all provided by Echo. So in October we were actually able to view a partial annular eclipse. So we got an annular but we didn't get the whole thing or the most dramatic version. We only got partial coverage. Now the reason that happens is because we need to be perfectly aligned in the exact right spot on the Earth to have the moon blocking the sun. If we're just a little bit higher above that line of the Earth and the sun we're not in the right spot and only half of the sun is going to be covered or a bit of it's going to be covered you need to be in exactly the right spot at exactly the right time to get the most dramatic effect. And that spot is called the path of totality and you can see here for April 8th Vermont is in the path of totality. If we zoom in on Vermont here the blue line shows you the exact center. So it's right up near St. Albans and Swanton. Those folks are going to get the longest totality or the longest time when this moon is completely blocking the sun. We down in Burlington are still in that red zone which means we still get totality and Burlington gets three minutes and 15 seconds which is a really long time. So for that entire duration the sun will be completely blocked by the moon. We're going to see this gorgeous corona because it's definitely going to be sunny and not cloudy at all. And if you're not in the red zone then you're only going to get that partial eclipse like what we had in October for the annular. Now I've been why are you doing this to me. We're going to get there. Okay. This is a sticky button guys. So I already said we just had an annular eclipse and now we're about to have a total eclipse and that might feel like a lot of eclipses and you're right. This world map shows the rest of the eclipses to happen across Earth in the rest of the 2020. So that's 10 eclipses in the next six years. That's kind of a lot. But why do we have eclipses I'm so scared to push this button. Okay. Why do eclipses happen a lot in a decade but not in a year. So the moon revolves around the Earth every 27 days or basically every month the moon passes around the Earth right. But it doesn't block the sun every time and that's because the moon's orbit is on a tilt compared to our orbit around the sun. So in order for the moon to actually block the sun it has to do two things. First has to be positioned in its orbit between us and the sun. But second its tilt has to align perfectly with our tilt to be on that same axis with the sun. This only happens twice a year once when the moon is close to us and once when it's far. So twice a year we have the chance of getting a total eclipse and an annular eclipse. Please. Okay. So the three must-haves for a total solar eclipse are one it's got to be close to us in that orbit. Two it's tilt has to align perfectly with our tilt so that sun moon Earth access is one flat line. And three you got to be lucky. You have to be in exactly the right space at the right time which we are. Now the last time this happened in the state of Vermont was in 1932 where the Northeast kingdom got to see totality. I don't know the last time it happened in Burlington but I'm safe to say centuries ago. The next time we'll get to experience this in Burlington is in 2106. So it doesn't happen a lot. Now what's so special about this eclipse? First the path. So if you look at this map of all the eclipses left to come this year or this decade you'll notice that a lot of them pass over the ocean because most of Earth is covered by ocean or over not so populated places which means most of these are not going to be experienced by humans at all. This eclipse is going to pass over highly populated areas Mexico and the US. Now this will be the most watched natural phenomenon in history that we know of because it's going to pass just in the America. It's going to pass over the homes of over 31 million people and that doesn't include the people traveling to it. That's just the lucky folks like us who walk outside and say oh hey the sun's gone and then go back home and do whatever we're going to do. The 2017 eclipse which was our last total in the US only crossed the homes of 12 and a quarter million people. So already we have way more opportunity to view this. The second cool thing about this eclipse is what's happening to the sun right now. So the sun goes through an 11-year cycle of activity and right now we are at our peak level of activity. Now when you block the sun out like maybe with the moon during an eclipse you get to look at the outer corona. That's where all that cool stuff happens. That's where we see flares. That's where you get to actually view the activity of the sun. And for three minutes and 15 seconds on April 8th we're going to get to look at that and see it with our bare eyes and at its highest activity ever for this cycle. And NASA scientists are thrilled about that. They're doing a bunch of research on very niche things. But if you want you could also scan this QR code. If you have a smartphone and an internet connection you can be a NASA scientist for a day and submit data from your eclipse experience as well. But thank you very much for bearing with all of that. That was awesome. Thank you so much Ellen. A terrific resource here and I'm so glad you were here because I could never explain any of that nor do I know that. From here we get to talk about bathrooms and traffic which is much more interesting and I'm more qualified to talk about. But I'm Zach Williams from the Burlington City Arts. We've been working on this event coming up on April 8th for months now. We're thrilled to be at this point where we can have all of us together talking to you and sharing what the plans are and both the science and what's going to happen here in Burlington. Let me find this clicker which you've made me know a little leery of. But maybe. Maybe. Hang on. There we go. Oh great. Cool. All right. So a lot of this information that we want to point out is on our website which is a BurlingtonEclipse.org. But we are happy to step through it today. A lot of people are wondering obviously how in the world is Burlington and the greater Burlington area preparing for an event this size. So I want to talk about a few things here. One is the police and fire plans. So obviously everyone in the region and this isn't just happening in Burlington as we saw on that map that's happening throughout northern Vermont is preparing for public safety. When you triple your size in a town things can happen. We're not ready for that amount of people to be here. So I do want to tell everybody that we have been working very closely Burlington police and Burlington fire. We have every available officer is going to be on duty and doing their jobs. They are around the city to both handle the events and they'll be at specific sites where we are directing people to and also throughout the city ready to respond to any calls for service. In addition with fire we have units that are assigned to certain sites. Our viewing sites we'll be talking about. But we also have another whole 22 fire officials on their normal ships. They'll be engaging the fourth ambulance in town. The normal two person crews on a fire truck will be made to three person crews so that they can respond to any kind of need across the city assuming that it is going to be hard to get around. So right now when multiple engine companies or trucks might come to a certain call they'll assume that that's going to be harder to do on April 8th and they'll be able to isolate and respond more effectively as units that are already in that neighborhood. So we're really paying close attention working with Vermont emergency management and the agency of transportation looking at modeling and what's going to happen. But we are feeling pretty good that if we see somewhere around 50,000 people here we will be well prepared to handle that. That is twice as many roughly speaking as the last July 3rd event and so that's a good number to be looking at. Above 50,000 it gets a little harder but we still have the same plan intact. Some people are saying well can you scale up but we are scaling up assuming that we're going to have a large number of people in town. So we are ready for that and we can certainly talk more about that if you're interested in the question and answer session. Specific to traffic and road closures this map is available on our website as well. This map revolves around a few things. One is parking and the other are pedestrians. We assume that a lot of people are walking and we encourage everybody to walk or bike. Certainly if you live in town and you can do that, that is great. We know people who don't live in town obviously need to drive. So to that end we are closing College Street from Center Street down to the waterfront. That will become a pedestrian zone. Cars will not be on that street and will really be encouraging people to navigate from the downtown to the waterfront and back using Battery Street, excuse me, College Street. Speaking of Battery Street, we are closing that from Main Street all the way up to its end at Sherman Street and then it continues there towards North Ave to North Street. That is similar to a marathon closure. What we're doing there is it allows us to move our shuttle bus system, which I'll get to in a minute, move those shuttle buses and other emergency vehicles down that corridor and be able to get from the waterfront out to the north end and old north end as well. It is inconvenience. We do realize that people who live in the new north end you still can get to the downtown core or where you want to go by taking North Ave to North Street. That is definitely the preferred route if you're coming from the new north end. Down at the waterfront we'll be closing Lake Street. So that whole section from one main heading down Lake Street towards the skate park in the boat launch, that'll be closed as well. That is again for pedestrian safety. We are expecting tens of thousands of people down at the waterfront and we want to make that a really safe area for everyone to walk and not have a lot of motor vehicle traffic in there. I'll stop there for a minute to say if you live in these areas or you're affected in these areas, we have been in touch with most people in the Lake Street area. You can get a permit so you can still get to your point of work or your residence. And certainly if you have other business in that area, do reach out to us and we can work with you to gain access to that. So it's not a complete like hard, hard closure. It's just general traffic will not be allowed. That also is the same for if you are affected by any of these other closures. You still can get access. If you live there and you have a reason to go there, we can make that happen. But the overriding message is it's not open for general traffic. Once we go towards our park and ride on Route 127, as I mentioned, Park Street is closed. That becomes a two directional street so that we can run shuttle buses up and down Park Street to connect the belt line with the waterfront. Again, if you live there, it's not that you have to stay put the whole day, although we encourage you to, you can get on that road. A couple things to know. One, drive slowly and use your flashers. And two, recognize that there is oncoming traffic in both directions. So you're very used to only having southbound traffic on Park Street. There will also be northbound emergency vehicles and shuttle buses traveling up the right hand side of that road. So do keep that in mind for sure. With Park Street closed, there are the contributing streets that then become affected. So that includes Pearl Street. I can't read all the labels, but all those other streets, Sherman Street, Poplar and Myrtle also get closed because there are one way streets off of that interact with Park Street as well. Moving from there to the belt line, we really did spend a lot of time looking at where can we park a lot of cars. It is different than July 3rd or other holiday events where we can park cars at the Gutterson Field House. UVM is in session and there's still a lot of students there and UVM also has their own programming. And also it would be pretty hard to close Main Street on a Monday. That isn't typically a holiday. So we turned it all in its head and we looked at a marathon closure from when the marathon used to run out on Route 127 and we flipped it so that we are closing Route 127. And that is a longer closure because there's some set up and tear down out there. So that is closed from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. will be the entirety of Route 127 from Platsburg Avenue to Manhattan Drive and the New North Avenue. The North Avenue exit as well will be closed. And we are going to park a lot of cars out there. So a lot of press just in the basketball days has been about Coventry and the fish show and they were planning to park cars in fields and it rained. This is April 8th and we don't have that many fields to park cars in and B any place that isn't paved is not going to be a great place to put a lot of cars. So we were looking for a hard surface that we could park a lot of visitors and it became Route 127 became the clear winner in that choice. We did during COVID shut that down a couple times to pass out food and other items. So it has been done before and as I said the marathon has done as well. We're working with Green Mountain Transit and Premier Coach to shuttle people back to the waterfront and no shuttle will be running from 11 from noon until 8 p.m. So if you park out there or you have guess what you don't need to park out there. But if you are no people coming to Burlington it is a great option to park out there. It's $30 for a car up to seven people to park out there that includes your shuttle bus ride to and from. We will have services out there including bathrooms and staff so it won't be a free for all. We'll be parking people orderly and we have eight we have a bus stop every quarter mile and plenty of traffic control people to make that a safe experience for everybody for sure. Really the biggest issue is moving all those people back down to the waterfront and back becomes a big the bigger end of that challenge in reality. In terms of traffic getting out there I'm very aware it's not the easiest place to get to if you're just arriving in Burlington from Boston or somewhere you obviously can get there from the Winooski coming up Riverside. You can also get there from the Colchester side entering at the North Avenue entrance and of course if you come off the interstate and down Main Street we are encouraging people and they'll be variable message signs there to take come down Main Street to go to Willard Street you take Willard Street to Pearl Street come down Pearl Street to Champlain Street by then you've toured all of Burlington almost and you'll get to Route 127. So if you are traveling on Willard or Pearl in that you know pre-eclipse time it will be more crowded we are directing a lot of traffic in your direction so please be mindful of that as well and as a reminder Pearl Street does close at Champlain because it dead ends into Battery Street right there. A couple other things about road closures and traffic well more about traffic there is obviously a big concern about the interstates and Route 7 we are not a place in the country that has a massive interstate highway system so there are most models do show that if we see a large number of vehicles in the entirety of northern Vermont that I-89 from exit 10 to the islands will get more crowded it is obviously not built for thousands of vehicles to be traveling on that road at one time so we will start to see backups on the interstate and certainly getting off the interstate onto Williston Road and into Main Street could start to get backed up. The state and our data does show that the arrival is more sporadic some people are coming Friday Saturday Sunday different hotels had slightly different rooming requirements in terms of a two-night stay a three-night stay or is it Sunday Monday is it Saturday Sunday Monday so we don't think it's going to be as bad leading up to the eclipse it's the after the eclipse which is a little bit more concerning it could be a mass exodus although as you'll hear from us we are encouraging people to hang out in Burlington and eat dinner here and support this community so we're doing our best to defuse the exit strategy but it could start to get a little bit more congested following the eclipse potentially. The line that we are using is arrive early and stay late so if you have friends coming encourage them to come early and encourage them to leave Tuesday it's going to be a better experience for sure it is not a day to try to get anywhere in a hurry it will be challenging. Another big thing obviously is parking we did touch on that with route 127 more in the downtown core the marketplace garage and the downtown garage both have special event rates for that day they are thirty dollars to park in a garage or a surface lot that's an unending stay so you could park there all day for thirty dollars street parking and kiosk parking is that's normal Monday rates but to park in a garage is thirty dollars or in a surface lot and then also the parking folks are putting on their own production on the top floor so the upper deck if you want to park up there and that does ensure you close parking and a great view and if you're someone who wants to take pictures or have a telescope you want to set up it's a great place to go you can go to the top of the downtown garage is really the sweetest spot so that costs a hundred dollars and to go to the marketplace garage is not as awesome so it costs sixty dollars so we do have people who do want to come and just get a great shot of this event and experience it with ease so that is a great option for a lot of people awesome I'm just making sure I didn't bring think of anything else glasses are on here too yes I'm talking about glass in the slide also so we have we along with many other people have eclipse glasses I'm fond of ours they are branded obscure up BTV with the date and they have our great skyline and the Adirondacks across the lake these are solar eclipse glasses and I encourage you all to get a pair either here or elsewhere the city ordered fifty thousand so we are ready to to help everyone get a pair they're also are available at other places but just to speak to the importance of these so this if you never worn them these this is like wearing well it's not gonna help you if you never worn this either but a welding mask which many people haven't learned either it is completely dark like if I put these on I cannot see anything out of them that is surprising to some people so you will not put these on and walk around from partial eclipse through totality all the way to partial eclipse you will you will not be able to see a thing they are only needed when you are looking directly at the sun but that is important it's not it's not a side thing it is it is really true that if you with the sun obscured it does create a much more powerful ray and it will damage your eyes and it's not something that you'll feel right away like something flew into your eye and you're like how but it will affect your vision long term so it is honestly a safety mechanism and required required practice that you put these on if you were going to look right at the sun like that like I can see that light actually which is pretty cool with these glasses on but you can't see anything else so if they don't feel real comfortable they're not gonna be wearing them all the time the other thing is is that you don't need them right if you are walking across a park and looking down and it's amber colored and getting darker you don't need these on because you're not looking directly at the sun so it's a cumbersome moment and you need to just make sure that if you do pick your head up and look right at the sun that you're wearing these glasses and then if you're doing other business about or talking to people you don't need them on because it would be really challenging actually I yeah so that is that is important the only time that you don't need these on is during the totality period and we will make an effort at all of our sites to identify when that safety period is but it is okay once you literally can only see the corona of the sun and you don't see any it's a perfect circle on top of each other there's not a little sun peeking out on the side that is a safe time to take these off and really enjoy the experience you can see the complete eclipse with that ring around it the temperature is going to drop it's going to be quiet we hope very dark it's going to be odd right we don't usually expect total darkness at 326 in the afternoon so I encourage everybody no matter what you're doing to take the time to experience this in this truly once in a life opportunity it's going to it's going to be really special the sunset also is all the way around you I believe and that is really special as well the nightlife comes out so take your time be somewhere special be somewhere that you can enjoy this and see it and really have your glasses and be ready for a great time because it is it's not to be missed people call it life-changing and I'm looking forward to seeing I've never seen it but it tells you something when so many people travel to see this event so I'm really looking forward to it and I encourage you all to check it out one more thing about the glasses we are selling these here today we're also selling them at the BCA center right next door on Church Street we're selling them at the Miller Center in the North End working with Parks and Rec and we're selling them at the healthy living in South Burlington and Williston as well so you can pick your eclipse glasses up at all those locations one other note actually every NPA neighborhood planning association in Burlington got 500 pairs of these so it was up to them how they distributed them and you feel free to get in touch with your NPA team and see if they have any available for your neighborhood we also have given kits to all the NPAs with posters and educational materials including these glasses so that if you do choose to stay in your neighborhoods and have an activation and a viewing party in your local neighborhood that we encourage you to do so and some resources there for you as well if you're not looking to join us in one of our official viewing sites great I think we now talk I think Sam's gonna talk about tally talks great so now we're gonna talk about the programming leading up to the eclipse so this is city programming that is happening in the weeks and days leading up to the eclipse so we're as I mentioned earlier we're kicking things off next Thursday with our totality talks series so we have three vm professors speaking on three different topics related to the eclipse right here in contoy's auditorium at 6 30 p.m. we encourage everyone to come and check those out all the talks sound super interesting I'm really excited to check them out myself we have John Perry kicking it off next week with big discoveries made possible during eclipses then we have Lewis the following weeks with sociocultural dimensions of eclipses and then wrapping it up is Paul Deslunds omens from above a curious history of eclipses and signs so they all sound really interesting and encourage folks to come check those out those are free in here in contoy's auditorium at 6 30 p.m. the first one is on March 28th the second is on April 4th and the final is on April 5th this clicker then on Saturday April 6th and Sunday April 7th we are hosting a special obscura BTV market so some of you here in Burlington might be familiar with the BTV markets we run in the summer and winter this is a special version of that market we're holding at the Hilton down on Lake Champlain we're going to have about 20 vendors there as well as a variety of artists who are hosting a lot of works that is 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. it's free for everyone to come check out this is an opportunity to showcase some of the amazing makers and artists that we have here in Burlington and their special eclipse wares i'm going to hand it back to Zach for a few moments tag teaming awesome um we also are really thrilled to present on saturday night um so the eclipse is not to be missed but this equally is not to be missed um our great we're so lucky to have zoe keating reside here in vermont we have worked with zoe a couple different times at the unitarian church at the top of church street but it turns out it's a perfect venue for her and some great collaborators as well so they are going to she is going to be performing with her cello and electronic effects a totally out of this world program that we're really excited about and then we are pairing her with roost world who's an electronic musician will open that set at he actually starts at 7 30 and the event starts a little bit after eight so roost world will be playing some music when everyone enters and then alex reeves and vanish work excuse me vanish works will be doing projections and they as you can kind of get a sense in that picture from that was from highlight a couple years ago he projects all over the back wall using real live footage plus found footage it will all have an eclipse you know angle to it but it is going to be really a great event you can get tickets to that that is a ticketed event and you can get tickets to that at burlingtoneclipse.org I encourage you to get your tickets soon because it's going to be really really excellent also on saturday night I can do it also on saturday night right here in contois we're working with vtif and we're showing a classic the stanley cubrick 2001 a space odyssey I mean why not you got to do it so we are that'll be right in here if you have seen it before you should come back and see it again if you haven't seen it yet this is a great film it's really pretty fun it is a free show but we are encouraging people to reserve their tickets in advance you can do that on our website as well we we may run out of seats so we just want to make sure that people who want to see it can get in we also are thrilled to be working with Burlington beer company and they have a special obscure beer so you can get a beer sit down and catch this great movie it's going to be a really great night also on saturday saturday is a busy day at bca right now we have a great exhibit by brian juror called celestial skies you can see that exhibit for free whenever the gallery is open wednesday through saturday and on saturday april six at six o'clock on our second floor space we're going to take an in-depth look at that exhibit and brian juror will be there along with tina scaja and claire pascale they will be talking about different angles of photography as it relates to eclipses and solar work and also an element of light pollution and how it's harder to see see stars and planets out there with all the eliminated buildings we have and lights around around our city so it is a really cool event that is also free as well and that's back to you is that you okay and then we're moving to sunday programming so on sunday we have moonflix matinee this is again in collaboration with our partners vtiff they are going to be showing a series of short films so they're going to start from the silent era and work all the way up to present day picks our movies these shorts include the 1926 moonland 1989's a grand day out featuring wallace and grommet among many others so this is going to be on sunday at 3 p.m. at main street landing and this is free and open to the public a great family friendly activity for folks to check out on sunday also on sunday right here in contoy's auditorium we're having two showings of this this is a song to the moon it's at 6 30 p.m. and 8 30 p.m. there will be two original compositions to go along with a silent film the original compositions are done by burlington based composer randall pierce this is going to be a truly incredible experience we really encourage people to come check this out this is a ticketed event so you can go to burlington eclipse dot org to purchase your tickets today next i want to highlight on our website burlington eclipse dot org we have a full calendar of all the incredible events that the burlington community is putting on on and around the day of the eclipse so echo has a ton of programming including a special exhibit right now for kids talking all about space and rockets the pinery and the get down are doing a special three day series of their food truck pop up in the south end vermont comedy club has a ton of shows coming in santiagos is doing special events all weekend vermont payton sip are doing eclipse themed payton sip classes and many many more so we encourage folks to check out our website to see all that the burlington community is doing to welcome and celebrate this once in a lifetime event zach and kj are now going to talk about the official viewing sites for the eclipse excellent so now we get to actual monday april eight and it is going to be an awesome day i want to just start out actually by pointing out before we get to viewing sites on april eight there are obviously a few changes to some pillar daily activities that happen here in burlington one green mountain transit i should have talked about this when we were talking about traffic but green mountain transit will be running their normal monday schedule up until noon and then between 12 noon and 6 p.m. they run to a one hour one hour one bus an hour schedule from noon to 6 p.m. out of the downtown transit center then they resume hopefully their normal monday evening service starting at six o'clock we also know that a lot of different things are closed and that has been an interesting balance while we're welcoming thousands of people to burlington and then we also have some things that are being closed so we obviously i think you all know burlington schools are closed many other the schools in the area are closed uvm is doing an alternative instruction day and has amazing programming up on their campus as well we also know that the ethan island homestead is closed so if you had plans to watch the eclipse out there you should change them they just don't have the staff and the infrastructure at this time of year to welcome a lot of people to their area city market is closed on that day both locations so get your grocery done the grocery shopping done before that before monday and the ymca is also closed additionally echo which is doing amazing programming is by reservation i think the whole weekend so you should if you do want to go to echo you should book your time slot now additionally the green mountain club has asked us to ask people to resist the desire to climb to the highest peak to see this event it is just too early to be out on trails and if you've been on trails in the spring before you know they get muddy and then when there's a big mud puddle people walk around it and it gets it to be a bigger puddle and a bigger puddle so it actually does tremendous damage to the trail network if you're out there when the ground is this soft and so they are encouraging people to not try to access their trail system during the eclipse getting to the day of here in burlington we are really excited to really focus on our amazing parks here in burlington that there's no better place to be to hold a lot of people and see this experience and so you will keenly notice that all of our official viewing sites are in parks that also is a big ask it is before it is it is early April so there could be stone on the ground we're hoping for the best but it is a big big lift for everybody for sure but we're really excited about it we are planning on welcoming thousands of people to the burlington waterfront it is inevitable it is the place that we will be drawn to we assume with the lake there and the eclipse so the eclipse is in the southwest kind of corner and it is going to be quite a site down there so we will have at all of our places merchandise booths where you can get glasses as well as our other eclipse and merchandise we'll also have extra restrooms at all those sites and we will have staff at all these sites as well at waterfront park we'll have a small stage over by the boat launch one o'clock we're thrilled to have Micah Helley there at two o'clock Ali T and her band are coming up from southern vermont and getting an early start so they can get here and then we from two to three two to three fifteen she plays and then we purposely at all of our sites go quiet from about three fifteen to about three forty five that is to really get ready for totality and get to experience it all this entertainment is really not about the main event is the eclipse happening in the sky we just are really aiming to make all these experiences enjoyable and pleasant and highlight smartness while we're while we're doing it so this is not a concert it is really about creating a great vibe in the park and so all these performers will be doing that so we do go quiet for the eclipse and then right out of right out of totality DJ Kwame you may know him from ninety five triple X will be spinning tunes from three thirty five to about five o'clock we also are thrilled to work with our presenting media sponsor WCAX they will be there hosting the show up until three o'clock for in the park and then they switch over and do a live broadcast on their channel from three and into the evening as well and we'll have a lot of great food trucks there as well so I think maple creamy will be there if you have a maple creamy solar glasses and the moon is the sun is obscured it is sure to be a great time over in one other thing about that is we have a very distributed sound system so you could be on the southern section by echo and hear everything that you want to hear and you could also be all the way to the boat launch so we're using the entire entirety of waterfront park at battery park just up the hill we're thrilled to have disco phantom there and then all night boogie band plays they are a great band from uvm and has tremendous success and we've worked on them a couple of times so we're thrilled to have all night boogie band there they play right up until totality and then disco phantom returns after totality further down so battery street is available for viewing the western lanes will be closed so we're going to divide that road right in half keep two lanes for shuttle bus travel on the eastern side closer to the hotel and on the grass side on the west side will be for people to gather and we're thrilled to welcome jay klu out there doing an acoustic set right down by main street landing on battery street and of course we'll have merch bathrooms available as well I think you are going to talk about oak ledge right sure oh you're going to have to make a clicker go because you know I'll skip it ahead a million times hi there my name is kj doil I am actually with parks and recreation and waterfront on this team I'm sort of the the one that's really lucky to talk to you a little more about other parks through town that are going to be offering both programming and just having accessibility we're really excited about oak ledge park we have a great deal more easy parking until it is gone so we have more ADA spots there as well as downtown I know we had peace correct peace parking lot down by the waterfront will be 100 percent ADA but other than that there are ADA parking spots spread throughout the city we have been promoting oak ledge is a great great place to experience some accessibility features we have light sound devices that have been made by a team at Harvard they convert light to sound which is very very cool and we also have and after if you'd like to come check it out we have a guide from NASA as a Braille tactile guide that NASA provided that speaks to a lot of the things that Ellen walked you through what the eclipse path will be like how and why eclipses happen so that will be available and there's also an absolutely banana school playground that is fully accessible at oak ledge so we're excited to have that open there will be bathrooms available there will be merchandise available same with Letty park as well definitely don't have programming but we do have the bathrooms available and you can go inside and visit our staff inside to get merchandise if you'd like awesome there's Perkins Perkins Pier will have parking available it will be done just like the rest of the city through park mobile and that will hopefully fill up early so that we can get people off the road so if you have folks coming in that want to be at the waterfront park and have accessibility without being all the way down there it's a great place to come early Roosevelt's I'm very excited to tell you about Roosevelt Roosevelt is a community family friendly event it's going to be a lot of fun we often have events in Roosevelt that cater to the all the old north end families and this one is no difference if I can't I'm sorry I can't read there unless I'm reading here so to go through that very quickly for you live streamed events we do have that under a tent at Roosevelt on a very large screen TV that folks will be able to watch and learn have some space related craft activities obstacle course yard games all sorts of fun stuff for all the kids in the neighborhood we have the bounce house which will be like walking on the moon we're hoping kids will feel that way we'll also have a march booth and bathrooms available on site miss Vermont 2023 will be joining us there as well we have telescopes available that are being provided by the O&E Arts Academy we're very excited they're also bringing more of their gifted from ward two and three glasses so we'll have a lot available for the folks in the neighborhood um I think that's about all I wanted to share with you if you have any questions you're always welcome to email me at the parks department and I'm happy to answer thank you hello I'm John Flanagan I'm the communications director at Burlington City Arts and part of the the viewing site city hall park like Zach said arrive arrive early leave stay late stay late so our programming in city hall park that is designed to to allow people to linger a little bit longer in Burlington so we're going to activate that with DJ crowd control at 215 and again at 345 after totality and then we're going to party with the moondogs simply the UVM band appropriately enough moondogs at five and it would be a great place with food trucks and um yeah so hoping hoping to to keep that going you can learn more about that exact programming on our website which you may have heard is BurlingtonEclipse.org so uh yeah to backtrack a little bit we've approached this event from the beginning a little bit differently then we approach our normal big events like highlight our New Year's event or Festival of Fools in the summer with those events we are actively trying to get people to come and engage with our programming this is different in that we we know people are coming we have a built in audience so it's more about accommodating those people and informing them informing visitors but also residents hence what we're doing here and the postcards you hopefully received in the mail but virtually all of the information we're presenting here tonight is available on our website so there you can like Zach said you can download maps of road closures there's an interactive map of all the viewing sites that Zach and KJ just went over and then there's information on safety glasses eclipse glasses and viewing safety where to get all that and then there's FAQ's obviously there's a lot of questions and a lot of information to cover we tried to cover as much as possible so you can find out things like should you bring a drone the answer is no should you bring a dog the answer is if it's well behaved or should you bring a bike which is yes definitely rather than your car so yes please consult all of those and if there's anything that is an answer on there and that we can't answer now you can email us a lot of the information on the site we're currently in the process of transitioning over to our app which is the BCA events app you can get that at Apple or Google we can download it right now it's free right now it has the highlight New Year's Eve branding on it but in the next coming weeks days really we'll be trend transferring the obscure up branding onto that and yeah that'll be a great tool because it allows us to send out push notifications Sony up to the minute pieces of information that we need to communicate to a large group of people that's one way to do it another way to do that is through VT alert we definitely recommend registering for VT alert you can sign up for phone calls emails text messages through there and hopefully we won't need to send many if any at all alerts for any emergencies or road closure infos things like that and you can also stay informed by signing up for our newsletter of the Obscura BTV newsletter which again you can do on our website I also recommend that you follow Burlington City Arts Love Burlington Parks Rec Waterfront and DPW on Instagram that's another great tool for us to communicate with all of you in real time um and again if there's anything not answered tonight or on the website you can email us at eclipse at Burlington VT.gov that goes to I think all of us so one of us should be able to answer your question and for any press inquiries you can either go there or email me directly at J Flanagan at BurlingtonCityArts.org my web my emails on our website so that kind of covers the comm stuff and I want to hand it off to my colleague Jess Dudley who will talk about our excellent swag thanks John sweet thanks hi everyone my name is Jess Dudley I'm the Marketing Manager for Business Workforce Development I'm so thrilled to be a part of this team I feel like we should give them a round of applause because of of all the work they've done yeah um I have the best part of the evening our fashion show John team no I'm just kidding actually but I am fortunate enough to talk about the merch tonight we have an incredible in-house designer that I'm going to shout out our Design Director for Burlington City Arts Ted Olson he's up in the chairs up there I'd like to give him a round of applause yeah thank you Ted designed our amazing Obscura BTV branding for this incredible program I mean you're seeing all that reflected up on the screen this Obscura BTV branding can be found on sweatshirts t-shirts both youth and adult the glasses postcards commemorative posters magnets stickers and yo-yos and most of that is all available for purchase tonight a little background here a collaborative story between us and New Duds who is printing our apparel merchandise and the commemorative posters New Duds is a Colchester based print design business Tori Value who is the co-founder he actually was a screen instructor for Burlington City Arts Studios back in 2010 so kind of a full circle moment here we're really fortunate to be able to partner with a local printer another example of a collaboration with our merch it's a bit of a two-fold story our Obscura BTV website which we've said is brilliantanacliffs.org was designed and created by Eternity which maybe some of you have heard about them but they're a web designer based here in Burlington Mike Lanin is the founder his partner and wife Molly Lanin own CW Creative it's a print business out of Berry, Vermont they printed our postcards so such a fun opportunity for us to be able to partner partner with a lot of local businesses for our merchandise which is amazing thank you Ted and like Zach and the others have said it is available available for purchase right now the eclipse glasses are three dollars they're available here they're also available at Burlington City Arts during gallery hours we are opening up a pop-up shop pop-up shop on on Church Street Northfield Savings Bank starting April 1st and then they'll also be available at all of our Obscura BTV locations viewing sites etc for you to purchase so happy totality and get your totality swag all right then the last part of the evening tonight now that you've heard all of the incredible stuff happening I'm sure you're eager to find out how you can help support it we are looking for volunteers to help support a number of the eclipse events happening that weekend and the day of if you're interested in volunteering your time and helping us out with all the program we have going on you can sign up on our website BurlingtonEclipse.org and we will connect with you on times and jobs that we're looking for volunteers for again we're trying to make this experiencing as welcoming and festive as possible for Burlington Tonians and visitors so we appreciate anyone who can give us their time and help volunteer with this event with that we are closing the info session part of this evening and moving to questions so now if anyone in the audience has any questions we haven't covered tonight if you just raise your hand Andrew will come over with the wireless mic and we can attempt to answer those questions I was curious whether you're going to close the bike path for bikes during the this period not intentionally closing the bike path during this period although we do anticipate a lot of people to be down on the waterfront and along the waterfront so I do I would plan on the bike path being congested that day any other questions are you going to have bike corrals to park the bikes and secure them yeah we're hoping to partner with local motion on that so we are working with them currently to find bike corrals and make that possible Andrew in the back I think there's a question there's two questions on the live stream one is do if you pay a monthly fee to park in the downtown garage will your parking be affected and where can I find information about the drone rules great the drone rules you can find that on our FAQ on our website brodingtoneclipse.org we have a whole section on the FAQs about drones specifically and the first question I believe is about parking at the downtown garage if yeah I don't know I don't think we know the answer that question about if you do have a monthly pass will your pass work on this day I imagine it will but to be safe I would contact parking services they will definitely be able to answer that question for you just I don't want to don't want to give false information to have someone get in trouble so I would I would look into that with parking services and we'll find out that information as well and add it to the FAQ on the website once we have that more questions yeah somebody wants you to explain the Obscura BTV name John is going to take this one for us I'm responsible for the Obscura BTV name being the comms director of Burlington City Arts I felt it was important to ground the name in the arts world so I was thinking about the camera Obscura and the phenomenon of the moon obscuring the sun and yeah people seem to like it I hope we have another question up here what about Callahan Park South Park is that going to be covered that is not being actively programmed but it is a certainly a spot that you could watch the eclipse from I have two questions and one is I rely on I work downtown so I rely on downtown parking most of the time so and you probably don't know the answer to that yet but I would like to you could also include that in the FAQs when it comes up on whether that free parking pass will still be valid that would be great and my other question is about security and whether or not Burlington Police is working with state police or private security in order to make sure that everything goes smoothly yeah so security is a big big factor obviously so yes we do have private security we're really pleased we're working with both Green Mountain concert services and chocolate vendor security at all of our sites so any of the official viewing sites that we talked about have a minimum of two people the bigger ones have upwards of six or eight private security that will work closely with Burlington Police and Burlington Fire and EMS as well so we are hoping for a very safe and secure and as we said a really hospitable experience everybody I did already get a response from parking services so you can park if you have a monthly pass your pass will still be valid on that day so you can park there as a person who assuming you have a monthly pass and you're not paying every day you will be able to park in your garages as usual the high school pass does not qualify for that because there is no school that day but any normal pass to a Burlington garage will still work correct if you work for a downtown business though we are securing some offsite parking that is within walking distance and we are happy to work with you you can contact us and potentially have a spot at another location for you that would and really actually free up a spot for someone to pay the $30 that's not you to park in a garage and you would park elsewhere is a something that we'd be interested in offering so that we can honestly make some revenue off of the parking from visitors and not from residents do you anticipate being able to see the eclipse from like church street like in the center of church yeah so our team actually got to do a really fun experiment last September when we found out exactly where the sun was going to be it was going to be the same place in the sky as it will be on April 8th so we all dispersed across all of Burlington and checked out various sites and looked to see where the sun was and if that would be a good viewing location or not unfortunately church street a lot of the buildings kind of block the view so church street itself it's not going to be a great spot but city hall park will you can see it from there it's just the buildings where the sun is going to be that time of day church street is a little obstructed so city hall park would be the best option for right downtown yeah it's in the so I pointed that way but I didn't mention the direction yes it'll be in the southwest kind of corner of the sky over the lake yeah so that question was about the direction of the sun that day so we decided it's in the southwest corner going northeast any other questions well if you think of questions later on again you can check out our website BurlingtonEclipse.org and there is our email there to reach out to us eclipse at BurlingtonVT.gov and we can answer any further questions you have thank you all for joining us tonight and happy totality