FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WFFT) --  Fort Wayne preparing for warmer weather as downtown comes alive at the end of March.

Here's what you can look forward to.

As the weather gets warmer and flowers bloom, Visit Fort Wayne spokesperson Erin Okeson’s says her favorite downtown spot is Freimann Square.

“They do beautiful tulips every spring,” Okeson said. 

Okeson says downtown Fort Wayne is starting to become more lively. 

“When temperatures rise a little bit and there is sun out like we’ve had this week, we see tons more people outside,” she said. 

She says that although festivals like Get Green Fest for St. Patrick’s Day and the Vera Bradley Annual Outlet Sale are canceled, there are still things to look forward to.

“Spring kicks off our festival season,” Okeson said. 

And there’s no bigger festival than the Three Rivers Festival.

The event has drawn tens of thousands of people from Fort Wayne and beyond for the past 52 years.

After having to cancel last year because of COVID-19 restrictions, Three Rivers Festival Spokesman Jack Hammer says they’re back in action.

“Rest assured that the people responsible for this festival are working hard and looking for new ways that we can celebrate,” Hammer said. 

This year’s theme for the Three Rivers Festival “Coming together. We take a look at our past present and future,” 

There will be three Grand Marshall’s representing each of those time periods.

Among them is Jaylon Smith of the Dallas Cowboys, Sammie Vance of Sammie’s Buddy Bench Project and Hana Stith co-founder of the African American Museum.

Michael Galbraith from Downtown Improvement District says he’s ready for our city to go back to normal.

“We think that the pandemic is going down from everything we see,” Galbraith said. 

Still, gatherings of thousands of people can be risky.

“We would like to the option or options to be able to have people still come down safely. If you do that at a 200-500 person level you can spread that out over a block,” he said. 

The Three Rivers Festival is slated for mid-July.