Food trucks lined downtown Kent’s Water Street in celebration of the solar eclipse Monday, featuring eclipse themed menu items, plenty of eclipse-approved glasses and an information booth. 

Main Street Kent has been planning and anticipating a crowd for the eclipse as early as 10 months ago, Heather Malarcik, Main Street Kent’s executive director, said. 

Ohio was in the eclipse’s path for totality, which hasn’t happened since 1806. With the next chance for this to

happen in Ohio being in 2099, this was a big event for all of Ohio.

Lieutenant Mike Lewis of the Kent City Police Department said the day will be exciting for everyone and they want to keep everybody safe. The department’s main concern was the traffic.

“We have all sorts of guesstimates,” Lewis said, in regard to how many people will be in downtown Kent. “So it’s anywhere from 5,000 people to 90,000 people, or anywhere in between.”

Travels for totality 

West Virginia resident Adam Payne traveled to downtown Kent for the first time with his family. He said he’s been looking forward to today ever since he found out that the eclipse was happening this year. 

“I’m super excited about totality,” Payne said. “I’ve never got to experience that.”

Kent State alumna Saraina Wise came to downtown Kent from Akron to watch the solar eclipse. She arrived downtown around noon, dressed in an eclipse themed outfit and ready to explore the food trucks and scenery. 

“It’s very fun to celebrate the Earth and nature, and all of the amazing things we get to do living on this planet,” Wise said. 

The information booth among the food trucks on Water Street featured a map people could put pins in to show where they traveled from. 

By the time the eclipse had started, the map had collected pins from all over, including California, Australia, Alaska, England, Germany and more. 

Trucks, tents, totality

Main Street Kent collaborated with many organizations to execute an eventful eclipse day. Malarcik said this included the Chamber of the City of Kent, the health department and local business owners. 

“We’ve been meeting monthly, and then we recently went to every two weeks to make sure we had all our ducks in a row,” Malarcik said. 

Daisy Pops set up their “PopMobile” Sunday night and were ready to sell sweet treats to the eclipse crowd. Daisy Pops owner Amy Mucha described their special eclipse themed cake pop, which came in flavors chocolate, vanilla and “eclipsefetti.” 

The university’s Fork in the Road food truck was parked on Water Street as well, along with Mamacita’s, The Slop Truck and more.

Rolling Refreshments, a student-owned gourmet mobile beverage business, had a trailer on the street and sold drinks themed to the eclipse. 

“We’re both Kent State students, my business partner and I,” Owner Audrey Ernst said. “This is our first big event officially as Rolling Refreshments.”

Downtown darkens

Cheering filled the air as the last bit of light disappeared. Orange and yellows overtook the sky, and streetlights turned on. 

Alumni Mike McKim watched the solar eclipse from downtown Kent alongside a group of people.

As the sky started to light up again, McKim expressed that he had fun and was impressed by the eclipse.

Samira Dadich, a junior criminology and justice studies major, said it was not what she expected. 

“I didn’t think it would get as dark as it did,” Dadich said. “It was crazy.”

Audrey Trevarthan is a campus editor. Contact her at [email protected].