CINCINNATI — As umbrellas and tents go up for the Kroger Wellness Experience at The Banks, a multi-day festival celebrating healthy habits and food, the potential for traffic issues downtown grows as well.

“This is our third year doing it,” Brian Endicott with Meyer Natural Food said Thursday. “It’s extremely stressful and difficult, but in the end it all comes together and turns out great.”

A creative strategist for Laura’s Lean Beef, Endicott and his team plan to pass out close to 6,000 taco samples at this weekend’s event, which is all about helping people find ways to live a healthier life.

“We know there’s several other concerts going on in the area, a couple of Reds games going on,” he said. “So we’re really hoping that we’ll end up with a large turnout.”

But that large amount of people could turn out to be a headache for some drivers. Several access roads to The Banks will be closed by performance stages and streets lined with vendors. That’s on top of several major construction projects downtown and bridges that are closed for maintenance.

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“It’s a little hectic,” downtown resident David Purtell said. “I mean, honestly, it makes it a little bit harder to get back from work and the gym and everything else, so it’s a little frustrating at times especially like during Reds games and they block off the street. So it’s frustrating, but I am excited to see the area growing.”

Kroger spokesperson Jenifer Moore said people planning to attend the festival should plan ahead.

“There’ll be a lot of activities happening,” she said. “So, if you want to, you know you can always drive down. There’ll be ample parking.”

She said all the parking garages should be open, but delays should be expected as people try to navigate street closures.

“We’ll have a number of entertainment options for the whole family to enjoy,” Moore said of the health and wellness fair. “There will be free concerts each day beginning at 4 o’clock, so there’s a lot of excitement building for this. Our goal, like I said before, is to really connect the food with medicine so that everyone can see the importance of being healthy and being safe.”

CINCINNATI — He's a Reds fan, but Gov. Mike DeWine hardly cheered when he saw Opening Day crowds at The Banks on Thursday.

"I think that's a mistake. I think that's a mistake to be that close together," DeWine said during his routine COVID-19 press briefing on Thursday afternoon, around the same time fans began congregating en masse on E. Freedom Way just outside Great American Ball Park. The strip -- lined with bars and restaurants -- is a small portion of a new designated open-container zone that spans most of The Banks.

For DeWine, he saw too many people too close for his comfort, and too few wearing masks.

"They’re outside, and that’s the best thing I can say — they are outside," the governor said.

The comment begged the question: How safe are outdoor gatherings when crowds get as dense as they were on Reds Opening Day, or like they were during the open-container zone's -- also known as a designated outdoor refreshment area, or DORA -- first weekend.

Dr. Steve Feagins with Mercy Health said get-togethers outdoors are safer than indoors, for the obvious reason: better ventilation. But he added that what he saw at The Banks Thursday made an entire physician's lounge at his hospital cringe.

"Everybody had the same reaction to watching all those people at The Banks," he said. "Oh, no. And these are the docs that take care of COVID patients."

Especially in an atmosphere where crowds are cheering, the risk of transmission -- even outdoors -- increases, Feagins said.

"When the sound is up, you're shouting, so you're actually aerosolizing more," he said.

Despite the increasing availability of COVID-19 vaccines, states across the country -- including Ohio -- are seeing a rise in cases and hospitalizations, yet again. But now, those who are contracting the virus most are younger people, as a majority of the state's older populations have already been vaccinated.

"Ohio remains in a race against a virus that is now more contagious and is right back on our heels," said Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, chief medical officer for the Ohio Department of Health, referring to increasing cases of more virulent COVID variants that have surged across the U.S.

Vanderhoff said doctors expect one or more of the variant strains soon to be the most common among current coronavirus cases.

So when it comes to wearing a mask and social distancing -- even when outside among crowds -- Feagins said, "Just keep going."