JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (WITN) – Jacksonville hosted its second annual Rock the Block event Friday evening on New Bridge Street, drawing crowds for live music, food trucks and vendors ahead of the Labor Day weekend.
The event, which started last year, shut down New Bridge Street for the evening. The city said 12 food trucks and around 60 vendors filled the downtown area. The event ran from 5 to 9 p.m.
Temperatures near 100 degrees led organizers to bring in extra medical personnel for the event.
Jacksonville Citywide Services Director Jojo Cariaso said an air-conditioned facility was available nearby in case of heat-related emergencies.
“In case of emergency our doors will be open over here at the chill zone, it’s an air-conditioned facility, so we can treat anybody with heat injuries,” Cariaso said.
Jacksonville Director of Recreation Services Susan Baptist said the city coordinated with police and emergency departments.
“We’re working with our police and emergency department and we will be activating a full EOC for this event,” Baptist said. “We’ve also implemented some misting stations as well as additional waters to give out, hand out. We are glad that this event is in the evening hours so it’s going to help a lot with that heat and sun going down.”
Baptist said organizers made several changes for the second year of the event.
“We did definitely add some things, we also repositioned some things so the stage is repositioned to help with sound projection,” Baptist said. “We also added a car show with a partner from Advance Auto, so we are excited about that. We also added activities at the far end of the street so the silent disco is down there and we centralized the food trucks.”
Some downtown businesses remained open during the event, including home goods store The Tattered Cottage, which also stayed open last year.
Tattered Cottage sales associate Beth Purcell said the store is looking forward to the event’s second year.
“In year 2 we’re just looking forward to even more success, more folks coming through,” Purcell said. “As a retired city employee I understand how hard the recreation staff and the others have worked, so we’re just looking forward to a great night.”
Zach Harrington and his band performed during the event, followed by the Phoebes at 7 p.m.
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