Downtown Hannibal slammed with Twain on Main festivities

HANNIBAL (WGEM) - Hannibal’s decades long annual festival Twain on Main kicked off tourism season on Saturday morning. And day one has already drawn in thousands of visitors.

With those thousand fighting to find parking and long lines of people, economic leaders said it’s a sign of a great tourist season.

“We were already marking the streets off on Thursday and had lots of people stopping us that were already staying here in town,” said Hannibal Historic Marketing Council President Katy Welch.

HHMC hosts Twain on Main each year. Welch said with more people traveling after heightened gas prices a year ago, this year’s turnout is massive.

“Nearly all the campsites are booked, nearly all the campgrounds are booked, all hotels, all AirBNBs,” Welch said.

Visitors and vendors came from all over the country.

“We had a good trip, other than our trailer woes,” said vendor Molly Hoff, who traveled from Colorado. “Trailers break down a lot when you travel all over the country.”

Hoff’s business Henna Blessings is one of 120 vendors set up on Main.

“We’ve actually been busy the whole time we’ve been here,” Hoff said. “So it’s been great. I think we’ll come back again next year.”

Local businesses were slammed too. Welch, who also owns Java Jive, said Twain on Main is the top three busiest weekends of the year.

“For us, that’s a nice help to get us through the slower season later on,” Welch said.

Twain on Main will continue from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Sunday.

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