{"id":1693,"date":"2016-11-04T23:19:02","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T23:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/bixby-knolls-first-fridays-celebrates-10-years-today\/"},"modified":"2016-11-04T23:19:02","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T23:19:02","slug":"bixby-knolls-first-fridays-celebrates-10-years-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/bixby-knolls-first-fridays-celebrates-10-years-today","title":{"rendered":"Bixby Knolls\u2019 Monthly First Fridays Event Celebrates 10 Years Today"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"13221088<\/p>\n

First Fridays photos courtesy of the First Fridays Facebook page.<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Time flies.<\/p>\n

This month marks a decade of bringing residents, businesses, artists and musicians together in Bixby Knolls for First Fridays\u2014and it\u2019s going to be celebrated, with an extravagant set of events, people, art, music and more aimed at memorializing the anniversary.<\/p>\n

From 6:30 to 9:30PM, the band MOVE will perform their First Fridays greatest hits at Ground Control, 4313 Atlantic Avenue; the Expo Arts Center will host over 30 artists as well as a children\u2019s theater event; free leis will be on hand for all, and face painting, night market sales and more will snag the attention of passersby, celebrating the significant impact of the tradition on the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\"14721652\u201c[Bixby Knolls] is back on the map, and 10 years ago this was a very sleepy area that \u2018once had a heyday\u2019 but slipped into obscurity,\u201d said Blair Cohn, executive director of the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association (BKBIA). \u201cThe media has recognized the renaissance going on here with all the fa\u00e7ade improvements, new businesses opening up, and monthly programs we host. There has been a ton of city support for the event which has also helped it grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

But most importantly, Cohn said the financial impact of the event has been a huge boon to clients and customers, especially significant given its incremental growth.<\/p>\n

It all began back in 2006, with one Bixby Knolls business owner deciding to keep her doors open a little longer than usual on the first Friday of the month, thinking maybe more people might just stumble across her business during the extended hours.<\/p>\n

Other businesses followed suit, and pretty soon, musicians joined the fray, followed by artists looking to showcase their wares during the monthly community occasion. Now, over 50 stores participate, along with 15 live musical acts and over 30 artists each month. It became, officially, Bixby Knolls\u2019 First Fridays.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the beginning, if we had 25 people come through our office to check out the artist, listen to some music, have a treat and move on to the next location we thought that was a good night,\u201d Cohn. \u201cNow we just love seeing the full spectrum of a few thousand people walking around and enjoying themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The BKBIA teamed up to host and coordinate First Fridays a year after it started. Cohn said the positive feedback from the community, including from councilmembers like Al Austin, has been one of the main joys of the work.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouncilman Austin said something to me recently, \u2018Blair, the kids that go to First Fridays now will be talking about it years later just like those folks that reminisce about the Pike back in the day,\u2019\u201d said Cohn. \u201cI hope he\u2019s right. I had never thought of it that way but I do hope people enjoy the whole experience of it and understand why we do it\u2026AND why it\u2019s so important to our business district.\u201d<\/p>\n

First Friday coordinator Tokotah Ashcraft said the place was especially valuable because it\u2019s strengthened the sense of community in Bixby Knolls.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst Fridays has created this safe place for artists, business owners, and the community to all interact with one another seamlessly in Bixby Knolls,\u201d said Ashcraft. \u201cI have watched many families and businesses move into the area because they know this is not only a safe place to be but a welcoming creative community and I think First Fridays has something to do with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The long list of celebratory events taking place at tonight\u2019s First Fridays aims to commemorate that sense of community. For the full list of features, go to the First Fridays Facebook page<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We know you’re looking forward to celebrating. So are the organizers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to hear MOVE play me my favorite songs from their sets over the years and we\u2019ll all eat some pizza and have some cake at the end of the night,\u201d said Cohn. \u201cPlus, if you find me walking around I may just have a special flask on me to share and say cheers to the event!\u201d<\/p>\n

Bixby Knolls’ First Friday event occurs in the area of 4321 Atlantic Avenue.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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Time flies. This month marks a decade of bringing residents, businesses, artists and musicians together in Bixby Knolls for First Fridays\u2014and it\u2019s going to be celebrated, with an extravagant set of events, people, art, music and more aimed at commemorating the anniversary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":67083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[718],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","tag-first-fridays","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1693"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=1693"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}