MISSOULA — The fields at the Missoula County Fairgrounds will be filled with thousands and thousands of people over the 4th of July holiday weekend as the Zootown Festival takes center stage.
Businesses preparing for the upcoming Zootown Festival:
The influx of people brings a lot of traffic to the surrounding area. MTN talked to some local businesses to see how they're feeling about the upcoming festival.
“Lining out, out the door. Um, and you're just going rolling burritos, rolling burritos, rolling burritos," said an employee at Midtown's Taco Del Sol location, which is used to long lines — especially at lunch.
"You're seeing everyone outside doing their thing, but, um, they go pretty fast.”
And that's prepared them for the upcoming weekend when Zootown Festival makes its debut at the fairgrounds.
"Our rushes get, our team is really good, so we get it done pretty quickly."
It isn't just the food industry looking forward to an influx of people this weekend.
“Probably at least like 20, 10 percent like, 20 to 10 percent I can increase,” said an employee at Smoker Friendly.
While downtown may be considered the business hub of the Garden City, Midtown is ready to be the focus of the festival.
"I think it'll be a really cool opportunity. It's going to be a lot of fun activities going on, and once I'm of,f I'll definitely be heading down and seeing what's going on."
It's not all about recreation. Other organizations in the area understand that a major event can lead to unexpected issues.
Watch related coverage: Prepare for traffic impacts as Zootown Festival takes over Midtown Missoula
“I think it's totally fine, honestly. We don't get a whole lot of action here at the Urgent Care. We might get a couple of incidents that come through, but really we don't get a lot of the action."
Some businesses have a front row seat to the action.
“We kind of were caught off guard, believe it or not. But it hasn't been that noticeable,” said an employee at The Book Exchange.
“I'm excited, you know, I'm kind of hoping that we have some chaos. You know, like a lot of people coming through, maybe we'll see some musicians,” said an employee at Loose Caboose.
While many businesses MTN spoke with are excited for the festival, there was a recurring issue that popped up — traffic.
“It's kind of a bit of a pain just with how much traffic there really is in town,” said the employee at Smoker Friendly.
“I mean, the traffic is kind of really crazy, but that's fine. It's only for a couple days, hopefully,” said the employee at Community FirstCare.
“The parking lot is definitely a mess and I hear the roads [are too],” said the employee at The Book Exchange.
If you’re headed to the festival this weekend, make sure to leave yourself plenty of time to find parking or if that’s too much of a hassle, there is also a shuttle available from several areas.
