BATON ROUGE - Friday, the LSU Tigers participated in the Podium Challenge, a gymnastics club meet featuring teams from California, Washington and George Washington Universities. For some fans, this was their first impression of Baton Rouge.

“It's beautiful here. I love it. It’s a great place to get to see my niece perform in a gymnastics meet and a great vibe. I didn’t know there would be so many people on their way to the meet,” said Margaret Munnelly, a George Washington fan.

Seven minutes from the PMAC in Tiger Town lies the River Center in the heart of Red Stick. LSU faced off in the club meet Friday that is part of the USA Gymnastics Purple and Gold Classic weekend.

“The fact that we can sleep in our own beds and manage to get an away score is hard to replace, so hopefully the place presents well, hopefully our fans will show up. I know it’s a more expensive ticket than what they’re used to paying to be in the PMAC, but if they go to the box office, they can save money instead of paying those Ticketmaster fees,” said Jay Clark, LSU gymnastics head coach.

Tourists from coast to coast will be taking over the capital city, enjoying the culture and excitement that Louisiana has to offer.

Visit Baton Rouge is a partner with the Purple and Gold Classic. They say events like these help showcase the city.

“An event in downtown Baton Rouge draws people to our attractions, museums, restaurants and coffee shops. It’s also a central starting point for people to discover the entire city. What we really want to do is get people here to discover all of our different things. If sports or universities get them here, that’s great; we’re going to keep them here with our food, our fun and our people,” said Laura Cating, senior vice president of marketing at Visit Baton Rouge.