Hard as it may be to imagine, Friday nights downtown in the summer used to drag.
No people, no excitement, no fun.
In 1992, the Downtown Traverse City Association conceived of Friday Night Live to draw a crowd to the main business streets, creating a party with a plan for Friday nights in late July and August. The solution has been win-win for businesses, residents, visitors, area performers and nonprofit groups.
"People who normally wouldn't come down now maybe come to walk around," said Chuck Thayer, owner of the Evergreen Gallery on Front Street. "You get a lot of people in the store so it's really good exposure that way. They may not buy anything that night but they may come back."
"It's just fun to have the streets open, everyone can wander around and see the entertainment," he added.
The 2008 Friday Night Live series kicks off this week with an All That Jazz theme. The event will showcase Jazz North, the Archipelago Project, Big Noise and area high school jazz ensembles.
From 5:30-8 p.m., cars will be banned from the 100 and 200 blocks of Front Street. The streets become a pedestrian entertainment mall as, in addition to the musicians, jugglers, face painters and representatives from area nonprofits will vie for the attention of passerby.
An estimated 1,000-3,000 visitors swirl through the streets each week, many of them locals who flock to the homegrown activities.
The line up of themes for the next four weeks of Friday Night Live is:
-- August 1: Street Sale
-- August 8: Outdoor Adventure
-- August 15: Arts Alive
-- August 22: 50s Night, costumes optional
As association staff winnows the 100 applications to perform music down to a roster of about 20 per Friday Night Live season, homegrown talent is a heavy favorite.
"I try to keep it local, we only have one band that is not Potato Moon everybody asks for them every year," said Colleen Paveglio, marketing director for the Downtown Traverse City Association. "It's not only local, but an avenue for people to play for the public."
Selecting who gets to participate is a challenge but necessary to keep the activities appropriate. Downtown Traverse City Association staff sift through all the applications every year, consider dates, space and coordinate with a weekly theme.
"You have to organize it, we've had people selling puppies," noted Paveglio.
While the arts comprise a large percentage of Friday Night Live's focus, for the past three years the annual Street Sale event has been an ever-increasing draw.
"The street sale now that it is during Film Festival, you can't move during that night," Paveglio said. "I wouldn't even be able to estimate how many people come down, at a minimum 5,000 because they always go to the movie at the bay front that evening."
Inviting nonprofits to participate in Friday Night Lives is another way to ground the weekly festivities in the community. The Great Lakes Children's Museum began participating even before opening their first location in 2001.
In addition to presenting activities multiple weeks each year, a highlight for 2008 will again be the children's art fair scheduled for August 15. This is the sixth year the museum arranged for area children to sell homemade art and crafts. The offerings quickly gained a reputation for their high quality and artistic imagination.
"The children's art fair is a special event for them just because it's at the right time of year and such a great venue for kids," said Mary Manner, director of education for the Great Lakes Children's Museum.
For more information, call the Downtown Traverse City Association at 922-2050 or go to www.downtowntc.com.
Print this story
E-mail this story
Discuss this story
