First Friday Block Party brings hundreds to downtown Biloxi

BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) - Biloxi was the place to party on Friday night. The First Friday Block Party cohosted by Biloxi Main Street and the District on Howard team was a success.

”I think really just even from two months ago, the last time we came here, this is so much bigger. There is more vendors. You hear big cities do events like this all the time, and it is really neat to see it taking off somewhere on the Coast,” said Susannah Snyder or Badine Books.

The local brand is newly established but wants to help local authors grow, so events that gather hundreds from across south Mississippi are key in the success of the young business. However, they are far from the only business to benefit from the event.

”It’s perfect. A lot of people find out for the first time that we’re here because of what is going on out there on First Friday, and they come back, and we get regular customers as a result of that,” said President of Gallery 782 Don Schiffner.

The gallery has been getting a lot of business due to the event so they started hosting large showings on the first Friday of each month.

Biloxi Main Street Executive Director Kay Miller understands how much local businesses gain thanks to the event and is now partnering with Memorial Hospital to allow vaccinations to take place on-site.

”With everything that is going on right now, we want to continue these events. We want people to still be able to come out and enjoy them. It is so important right now to be vaccinated, so we partnered with Memorial Hospital and they brought their vaccinations out,” Miller said.

Several vendors are appreciative of the effort to keep the momentum and resurgence of downtown Biloxi alive.

”We really want events like this to continue and in order for that to happen, people need to get vaccinated, so the fact that they have it readily available is amazing,” said Badine Books wwner Cullen Hawkins.

With the number of COVID-19 cases continuing to climb here in the Magnolia State, Memorial is working hard to try and keep everyone safe.

”We have realized that we need to make it easier to get vaccinated in order to get everyone vaccinated. So what’s easier than going right to where everyone is at,” said Memorial Social Media Coordinator Sylvia Hanes.

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