Miss Tennessee Volunteer Pageant gives Jackson economic boost
JACKSON, Tenn. — The Miss Tennessee Volunteer Scholarship Pageant is back in Jackson, and contestants have had an extra year to prepare due to the pandemic.
Thirty-six candidates are excited for the long-awaited competition, and many others are just as excited to return to a public event.
“There’s a certain energy with it. People are excited to get back, and being in a public event, and being with other people,” said Lori Nunnery, with Visit Jackson, Tennessee. “We’re very excited to see the energy come back to our community.”
With many people coming to town for the pageant, many businesses, hotels and restaurants will be busier than usual.
Between 1,000 to 1,500 tickets have already been sold for each night.
“The pageant has been such a mainstay here in Jackson since it began in the 50s, and it’s something that is very vital to the community, and I don’t think that a lot of Jacksonians even realize that the pageant is the largest economic driver for the city of Jackson,” said Allison Demarcus, the Co-executive Director for the Miss Tennessee Volunteer Pageant.
“It does bring a lot of people into Jackson, and those people are not only going to the pageant and supporting it, but then they’re also shopping, they’re also eating, they’re buying gas, they’re spending their time and their money here in Jackson,” Nunnery said.
Demarcus says the contestants are from different cities all over the state, and some just attend school here and are from out of state.
With each contestant comes friends and family members, as well as a production and crew.
“Some of them will stay throughout the entire week. Others will just come in for a night, so there’s a lot of different opportunities for us to have different guests in our community and that has a significant impact on our community economically,” Nunnery said.
The pageants preliminary competition starts Wednesday evening, and there are only a limited number of tickets left.
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