Husker Harvest Days ‘booming’ for Grand Island tourism

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) - Day two of Husker Harvest Days followed up a strong day one with another large crowd west of Grand Island on Wednesday.

While the local tourism sector is thrilled to see so many visitors pour into Central Nebraska, some hotels have already had some longer-standing guests. It’s well known how events like Husker Harvest Days boosts the local economy, from restaurants to shopping centers and everything in between.

However, you may not realize that one of the biggest benefits to hosting the annual farm show isn’t the people who attend, but rather the ones who are on display.

”The Grand Island hotels fill up with participants, but really the vendors - they’ll come sometimes as early as a week or two before to get their very complicated displays set up and those kinds of things,” Grand Island Tourism Director Brad Mellema said. “Many of those guests at a lot of our properties are for more than a week for those folks.”

The annual ag show takes place mere days after the end of the Nebraska State Fair, and according to Mellema, it’s just another day, another major event for Grand Island.

”We’re a big event town,” he said. ”You mentioned the Nebraska State Fair, and maybe that is one of the largest, but we also have livestock shows that are a week long, national 4-H shooting sports, and if you think of the Sandhill Crane Migration in March, this is going to be right in there with those major events. When you say Grand Island is home to Husker Harvest Days, it certainly is one of those top events in our community.”

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