TOLEDO, Ohio — An assortment of vendors are set up on several downtown Toledo streets in preparation of the 2024 Jeep Fest this weekend.
But there are a lot of businesses that are here year-round and are excited to get new customers in the door.
Nick Scott, owner of Wild Side Brewing Company on St. Clair Street, has a few Toledo Jeep Fests under his belt and is looking forward to another.
"We have a lovely area down here. It gets better every year and I like to watch people enjoy it," he said. "Whenever there's an event downtown, that especially brings in this number of people, you definitely see a big increase in revenue. But this one, because it's a four-day event, it's definitely one of the bigger ones of the year."
This weekend will be the first Jeep Fest for Jason Peters, owner of Maumee Valley Chocolate and Candy on Summit Street.
"It seems like the biggest thing that's happening downtown for us being here," he said of the annual event.
Peters has owned the company's other location in Maumee on Conant Street for 12 years and opened his downtown location in December.
"We know what to expect there we know what kind of crowd we're going to get," Peters said. "We're preparing for the same thing but maybe prepare for a little bit of chaos and then just deal with it."
Toledo Jeep Fest organizer Whitney Rofkar said the festival's size and economic impact grow every year.
"It's about $5 million in economic impact, so year after year, businesses, hotels, restaurants really benefit from Toledo Jeep Fest coming in town and we're really proud of that," Rofkar said.
Even though Mother Nature brought rain instead of sunshine on the first day of the festival some see it just as a way to make sure all the Jeeps look good for this weekend.
"They've already bought their hotel rooms and they're in town anyway so they're going to have fun and regardless of rain or shine. We're going to do alright," Scott said.