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year's 10-day event "nothing but a success." "We are funded by the [Macon-Bibb County] hotel and motel tax," she said. The current rate, which is an excise tax of 8% of the rent on lodging from guest rooms, supports the Visitors Center and 11 other local cultural organizations. Among Macon's new attractions under Visit Macon's thumb are courts for the rapidly expanding sport of pickleball, housed in the reimagined Macon Mall. The 32-court facility is presently the largest indoor facility in the world for the sport and has hosted tournaments for teams that have traveled from throughout the Southeast (and even farther) to compete. In September, people can look forward to the annual Indigenous Celebration at the Ocmulgee Mounds, a sacred site for the Muscogee (Creek) people. The mounds were recently named one of TIME Magazine's 100 World's Greatest Places of 2025 – one of only 16 locations in the America to make the list. Currently considered a "National Historical Park" by the National Park Service, Ocmulgee is poised to be designated as Georgia's first National Park, and the 64th in the country. To honor the area's Indigenous heritage in anticipation, Downtown Macon now includes bilingual, Visit Macon-branded street signs in English and the Muscogee language. This Christmas season, plans are in the works to add a European-style market at Cherry Street Plaza, complementing the increasing popular light display downtown on Poplar and Third Streets. The holiday lights show now features synchronized music and has become a major year-end draw. The Visitors Center also strongly promotes Macon's musical history in a myriad of media series. Those short-form videos are made by Big Hair Productions, owned by filmmaker Tabitha Walker. This includes the award-winning Macon Music series goes from Ed Grant, Jr. discussing how his father broke boundaries in the Jim Crow South with his dive bar, to country artist John Berry promoting his annual Christmas concert at The Piedmont Grand Opera House. Among the themes that Walker's company has produced is a curated 26 video "PlayList" – a play on the musical theme that celebrates other local attractions like the Hay House or Rose Hill Cemetery. Other videos include #MaconMoments, targeting certain archetypes of visitors such as pet owners or sports fans, or Order Up, showing off tantalizing tidbits of food from eateries like Macon Bagels or Natalia's. Walker is proud of the Visit Macon ad campaigns. "We're taking a unique approach to help market Macon to locals and tourists alike," Walker said. "The series has won a few awards on tourist platforms." The organization has also acquired businesses to "Our communities are more than just the roads that travel through them. Our communities are the people who live here, and who lived here before us." ABOVE Tabitha Walker interviews musician John Berry at The Piedmont Grand Opera House, where he has hosted an annual Christmas concert for more than 25 years. Photo by Julia Morrison. 38 maconmagazine.com | June/July 2025