welcome to my mayor's message for April 2024 I'm mayor Ron Jensen spring is sprung and that means a lot of exciting things are happening outside and around our great City including the start of the 2024 Grand Prairie Farmers Market season opening day will be on Saturday April 6th and that morning we will also kick off the 10th oh my goodness the 10th season of my cycling with the mayor with an annual community 5K where you can stroll walk or run I'll be walking and it's all around the downtown area enjoy local vendors and visit with many of your neighbors it's such a fun event and we will have free t-shirts while supplies last no pre-registration is necessary so come on out and have some fun and before and after you walk or run you can enjoy a free health fair lots of activities for the kids and of course the great vendors that make our Farmers Market one of the best in Texas and as a reminder the first cycling with the mayor bike ride of the season will be the following Thursday April 11th the ride will begin and end at Epic Waters we'll gather at 600 and take off at 6:30 a full schedule for this year's cycling with the mayor events is now available at gptx.org SLG getfit GP and as yall probably have heard by now Grand Pre is right in the path of the total solar eclipse that will occur on M Monday April 8th this is going to be a once in A- lifetime event and we have a lot of fun and educational activities planned in addition to a free watch party at Epic Central while you wait for the eclipse to happen we'll have live music Hands-On activities and much much more and if you need the special glasses to make it safe to look at we'll have them available for purchase at the event but you can also get them ahead of time at the tourist information center located at 2170 North Bel Line Road right next to lonar Park to see the complete total eclipse schedule of events visit gptx.org you can also visit with two of our city council members and City staff during the month of April at the following community events enjoy coffee and conversation with play s at large council member Bessie Adams on Saturday April 6th right after we open Farmers Market her event will be at 11:00 a.m. at the Grand Peninsula Clubhouse located at 2603 North Grand Peninsula Drive and then on Thursday April 18th at 6 PM council member Mike delosi will host a District 3 town hall meeting at the Ruthie Jackson Center on South Carrier Parkway these events are a great way to visit with your representatives and address Community interest concerning our city and both events will also be available via Zoom you can get more information at gptx.org don't forget that early voting for the upcoming May 4th city election opens on Monday April 22nd and continues through Tuesday April 30th for Council seats in District 5 district 6 and place8 at large you can vote at any location offered by your county during early voting and on voting day if you need more information it's available at gptx.org elction we're excited to once again bring Main Street Fest to our community the 3-day event kicks off on Friday night April 26th and joining me to tell you about it is Emily lerys our Parks arts and Recreation special events manager tell them what Main Street fast has stall for this year well one of the biggest changes about this year's Main Street Fest is our expanded layout uh we're actually doubling the size of the event this year so for those that have been in years past we're expanding West and taking on a couple more blocks where you'll see more carnival rides um almost double the amount of arts and goods vendors and food vendors as well we'll also have another great schedule of musical performances and three exciting headline acts on the main stage please fill us in so this year we have already announced our three major Headliners so on Friday night we'll be featuring Mark Chestnut as a country singer on Saturday night we'll be featuring Michael Salado as our Latin entertainment and on Sunday night we'll be featuring Parliament Funkadelic featuring George Clinton beyond the main stage Headliners will actually have 16 performances on the main stage throughout the weekend and another 11 on our community stage which is programmed by the Grand Prairie Arts Council there are also some special offers we want to tell everybody about what you need to know if you want to go this year we're excited to offer an exclusive coupon for Grand Prairie residents so for the carnival rides typically people will pay for a wristband to get access to all of the different rides this year for residents exclusively they're going to get a discount of $15 off that original price of 40 which will make their wristband price $25 so they may have already gotten in the mail a copy of the coupon on the back of their life is Grand Magazine but if they need any additional coupons because it is one per person they can pick them up at any of our Recreation facilities like the library um and some of the rec centers so you can bring those coupons to the event and for any more questions about the event in general they can visit Mainstreet fest.com thanks so much Emily I know it's going to be a fantastic weekend and quite a way to top off an action-packed April in our city and we sure hope to see you at some of these great events until next month y'all be kind stay safe and let's live life Grand here in Grand Prairie