Raleigh has benefited from various music festivals which are bringing revenue to the city. The current one is the Hopscotch Music Festival, which started Thursday. | Coachella/Facebook
Raleigh has benefited from various music festivals which are bringing revenue to the city. The current one is the Hopscotch Music Festival, which started Thursday. | Coachella/Facebook
A string of gatherings is slated to visit Raleigh as the city strives to get back to pre-pandemic social offerings.
"Festivals have been carrying us,” Loren Gold, president of Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau, said in a WTVD report.
“Dreamville back in the spring was extremely strong,” he said, referring to a weekend-long event that brought in $6 million.
Future gatherings include the Hopscotch Music Festival, which kicked off Thursday and runs through Saturday. It will feature about 450 bands and the event is expected to draw thousands of visitors.
The Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau reported that overall visitation in Wake County is almost back to pre-pandemic levels and tax collections are up.
Hotel occupancy rates for Wake County came in at 69.1% in July, which is up from 63.5% a year ago. The high for July was 75.6% in 2019, a rate that fell off to 40% during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Aside from festivals, football games and other sporting events will also be bringing in money.
"I look at my peers in other major cities, I think we're doing much better than some,” Gold said.
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