CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The city of Rockport-Fulton is excited to kick-off a tradition that has been a staple for the community for more than three decades: the HummerBird Celebration!
This event attracts thousands of visitors to the city. The purpose of the festival is to educate the community about the preservation of all of Rockport's natural resources. The city usually sees anywhere between 4,000 and 5,000 visitors just for this event. This year, organizers are expecting even more.
Chairperson for the Rockport-Fulton 35th Annual Hummerbird Celebration Melody Waggoner is looking forward to the economic gain that inevitably has a large impact on the community. 90 percent of people who attend this event are visiting from out of town. Hotels, restaurants and attraction in the Rockport-Fulton area benefit from this foot-traffic.
"We expect probably between 5 and 6,000 extra visitors to the community," Waggoner said. "So it brings a lot of extra business in. We're not just celebrating the hummingbirds, but the migration of all birds so we call it hummer-bird."
Popular events that are known to sell out, are field trips to area ranches, and guided boat trips. Assembling these events wouldn't be possible without over 70 volunteers. Volunteer chair, Christy Hutt says she and others have had a blast putting an event of this size together.
"During the event itself, they'll be at the what we call the 'Hummer Mall' where all the vendors and the food vendors are at," Hutt said. "And they'll have these birds just, kind of amongst the people. It's really fun. There's one that actually collects money and puts it in a box. It's kind of neat to watch them do that."
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