Artists, vendors, and activities fill the streets of downtown Navasota.

NAVASOTA, Texas (KBTX) – The city of Navasota is celebrating Texas’ birthday.

Texas Birthday Bash will be in downtown Navasota on March 1st and 2nd right next to City Hall. There will be food, fun, and live music. The event celebrates Texas’ Independence.

Not only is it a fun weekend for the city, but it’s a profitable one too. The city says it’s expecting around 20,000 people to come into town just for the weekend.

Lloyd Lively, Navasota’s Marketing and Communications Director says that at least half of the city’s employees have been planning and preparing for the attraction.

“This could not be done without the generosity of our city staff. These are very hard-working men and women who go way beyond the total extra mile to make sure this event goes off so that our community and the surrounding community of people who come here have the best time of their life,” said Lively.

The city tells me they plan every detail of the Birthday Bash from choosing which bands will play, and which vendors will be present, to coordinating with a sound company to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Several artists, vendors, activities, and more are filling the streets next to city hall.

During the Texas Birthday Bash, the owner of Rail and Rye, Chris Tucker, says their proceeds go up 10-15% compared to a normal weekend.

“We get a lot of customers that come in for this event. Typically, there are 10 or 20 thousand folks that come downtown for the two-day concert. It’s a great time, it’s great for the economy and all the shops downtown,” said Tucker.

Tucker says the foot traffic starts hours before the gates open.

“Especially today, the music doesn’t start until 3 p.m. so people are coming to look, shop, eat, see what we have to offer down here,” said Tucker.

With more people wandering through downtown Navasota, new customers are finding their new favorite spots.

Rebekkah Morgan, manager at Circle P Antiques & Collectables, says that people coming into the shop find a new interest in antiques.

“They’ll be people coming in that wouldn’t normally be coming into an antique shop just because they are out and about, so it’ll be a good opportunity to get people that weren’t interested in antiques and collectibles, interested,” said Morgan.

The festivities are Friday evening March 1st, and the majority of the day Saturday. The headliner, Lonestar, takes the stage at 8:30 p.m. Saturday night.

“I can definitely see that in the last two years, we’ve had a significant increase in business,” said Morgan.