First Friday, Any Friday, Anywhere

Greensboro's Center City Park with Christmas tree and skyline in background (photo credit-myself)

This past Friday I attended Greensboro’s annual Festival of Lights, which also happened to coincide with the monthly First Friday celebration held by Downtown Greensboro, Inc. I went to my very first First Friday over the summer, and enjoyed looking at art and seeing the revitalization of downtown Greensboro. I’ve been downtown on a number of Fridays, to eat at various homegrown and some chain restaurants, but this takes it a step further. Galleries have art, stores have book signings and there’s usually someone at Center City Park performing. Last night’s main event was the lighting of the Christmas tree and the debut of all the decorations in downtown Greensboro.

What I like about First Friday is that it gets me out of the house and back downtown where I can walk around and experience so many sights. Last night was especially fun because they took the time to close down the streets and we could walk straight down Elm Street (Our “Main” Street) and get quality photos of our historic downtown at Christmastime. Many of the new-urbanist areas try to duplicate this effect. We in Greensboro have an EPA award winning project in this vein. However, it warms my heart even more that we are able to appreciate our historical buildings and come back to our roots.

If you’ve been reading this post so far, living in a community that doesn't have this event and not understanding what the big deal is about these gatherings, I’d like to share that with you. It’s about community. Many of the cities who started First Friday celebrations had blighted downtowns ( like us in Greensboro for several years) and/or crime and other problems. Like the National Night Out celebrations in August, these First Friday celebrations open up the doors so everyone can at least be familiar with who is around and cultivate new relationships. While this may be assumed in areas outside of cities, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to have an official opening of doors and meet and mingle between neighbors.

So what can you do to start a First Friday tradition? Here are some other activities that can be incorporated into one of these events:

• Progressive dinner
• Small business expo
• Church hop
• Multicultural festival
• Open school night ( children at various schools showcase their work).

Be sure to coordinate with your local police, fire and other government entities, so that helpful logistics like blocked streets and security patrols can be done. In addition, be sure to tell your local media in time so they can get the word out and even be a sponsor.

I’d like to know, does your community do First Friday? What are some of your ideas to get Friday’s going?

Cross posted at my personal blog- Waxing Philosophical