CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Buc Days is making its way to the Corpus Christi Bayfront and the American Bank Center this weekend.
It's much more than the rodeo, the night parade and carnival. It's also a huge economic impact for the City of Corpus Christi.
Over the next two weeks, the city will not only have thousands of visitors attending the events, but also all the workers and competitors from around the globe who will be calling Corpus Christi home.
House of Rock Owner Casey Lain is gearing up for what Buc Days could bring his way.
"Buc Days is a cool event, it brings in a different crowd, a little different from a concert or a one night festival. The air show a couple of years ago brought all kinds of people downtown, which was a first they ever done that," he said.
Lain said House of Rock will be open for lunch all weekend-long with a long list of live music performances planned.
House of Rock is one of many businesses that are hoping to capitalize on the huge crowds the event brings every year to Downtown Corpus Christi.
Buc Days President Johnny Philipello told 3NEWS that contestants from place like Canada and Australia will be visiting the Coastal Bend this weekend.
As a result, hotels are filling up fast. Philipello said an expected 500 contestants will stay anywhere from 3-7 days.
That's on top of about 70 vendors from all over the United States coming in.
"72,000 people bought a ticket last year, we think we can do more than that if weather cooperates. Having the air show back as part of this, we hope to be over 100-thousand in visitor guest this year," he said.
Corpus Christi photographer Fonzie Munoz has a good snapshot of just how big of an impact Buc Days and Wings Over South Texas will bring.
"I was talking to some friends of mine from San Antonio coming down for Buc Days for the parade and the carnival, the amount of people downtown supporting local businesses, these next two weeks are an impact," he said.
Philipello said the televised event will help extend their reach.
"We'll have about 29 hours of broadcast televised on cable network and a rebroadcast of our hour long championship, last year the data showed about 650,000 tuned in," he said.
The event will kick off May 4. with the dunking of the mayor and dollar night at the carnival.
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