The first step

Now that Rocky Ridge is an entertainment district, Rob Morgan said he believes the shopping area can compete with downtown Birmingham as a spot for people looking to enjoy a night out.

Morgan, who works with his father, Robin Morgan, at Morgan Properties, is part of the Rocky Ridge Arts & Entertainment Association, which is planning events to take advantage of the area’s entertainment district status. The committee has decided to kick off on June 3 what it hopes will be Rocky Ridge’s mainstay event: First Fridays.

“We want to create a draw. We want to bring something here and create something new,” Morgan said.

Paula Reynolds of Artists Incorporated and Leisha Knight of Morgan Dentistry also are leading the association’s efforts. They, along with Morgan and others, began throwing around ideas for the entertainment district even before the council approved it last October. Meetings with Rocky Ridge businesses and residents began in January, and the idea of First Fridays began to take shape.

“The response, for the most part, from the community and from tenants is really excited,” Morgan said. “We’re very fortunate that we have a lot of people who are kind of getting behind this, and we’re confident it should be a lot of fun.”

An entertainment district is exceptional in that patrons can take an open alcoholic beverage from the restaurant where they bought it and drink it outdoors in the district, as long as the drink is in a specially marked cup and the patrons do not enter another restaurant licensed to sell alcohol. 

The association is hoping to use this designation to create events where guests can move freely between businesses and outdoor spaces. Reynolds mentioned the possibility of creating an event around Slide the City’s June 25 arrival or setting up an inflatable movie screen one night.

Local attraction

First Fridays will be a monthly evening event to bring out shoppers and diners from Vestavia Hills and beyond. Morgan said live music will be one of the principal attractions as well as vendors selling art and homemade products. Rocky Ridge businesses also can choose to stay open late and set up their own outdoor displays.

“We’re concentrating on vendors, to be honest, that don’t necessarily compete with our brick-and-mortar stores here. We don’t want to step on anybody’s toes,” Morgan said. “We want this to be a benefit to all. And we’re hoping that we’re able to create that.”

Reynolds said Artists Incorporated will host several of its members to sell their work and give demonstrations. Knight, a former performer with Cirque du Soleil and other circuses, is in charge of bringing in performing artists for additional entertainment. She said she plans to bring in artists to perform in aerial silks, partner acrobatics, juggling and hoop dancers, as well as a children’s circus area. Knight said she wants to use this as an opportunity for new artists to have an audience.

“Right now, it’s going to be fun and exploratory,” she said.

Other possible attractions they mentioned included hula hoop and acrobatic “jams” at pH Balanced Fitness, games at Morgan Dentistry, pet adoptions, children’s activities and a fashion truck. The Vestavia Hills Library is also on board to participate.

Based on research Reynolds has done on First Fridays in Florence and other Alabama cities, Rocky Ridge’s restaurants will likely be the first to see an increase in business from the event and the entertainment district in general. Because of this, Morgan said, a couple of restaurants are taking on the initial cost of paying for musical acts. Retail businesses are likely to see a slower growth in business as new shoppers are exposed to the Rocky Ridge area.

Live music will be on a new patio being built at Moe’s BBQ, an outdoor area near The Ridge and on the porch of Artists Incorporated.

The final layout of First Fridays has yet to be decided, but Morgan and Reynolds said they envision it with the heaviest concentration of vendors in the parking lot of Rocky Ridge Square, where Western Supermarket is. These vendors would be stationed along the sidewalk in front of the shopping center and around the perimeter of the parking lot, leaving the center open to parking so people can continue with their normal shopping.

“We don’t want to touch the Western’s spots. We want to be able to make sure people can come in there and carry on business as usual,” Morgan said.

The Artists Incorporated property would host more art-specific vendors. Rocky Ridge Square, where Moe’s BBQ is, would feature music and a few more vendors. Finally, the Shops at Oak Park, across Rocky Ridge Road from the Western, is likely going to be the spot for the children’s area, performance artists and perhaps a few more vendors.

Known challenges

There are a number of challenges the Arts & Entertainment Association face when planning the First Fridays, and Morgan said the first few events will require a lot of learning and adjustments. One of the major problems is accessibility and pedestrian safety, since roads through Rocky Ridge cannot be closed down during First Fridays. The association is working with Vestavia Hills Police Officer Eddie Crim to plan police presence and safe road-crossing sites.

Morgan said he is hoping the entertainment district will draw enough crowds to spur more accessibility to foot traffic in Rocky Ridge.

“One of the offshoots of this that we are hoping to have is if we do get a draw and people are coming in, enjoying this live music outside, to kind of increase the pedestrian crossings and more sidewalks,” Morgan said.

Parking is another challenge, and Morgan said that depending on crowd size, the association is hoping to partner with neighboring churches to use their parking lots and perhaps shuttle people into the district. However, one of their biggest obstacles is making sure that First Fridays stay a family event even with the presence of open alcohol containers.

Morgan said one of the ways they will accomplish this is by carefully selecting the musicians to create a welcoming atmosphere and “to make it into something positive and not turn it into a raging rock concert party.”

“We didn’t want this to be something negative,” he said.

Knight said that the mood of First Fridays will also shift from an afternoon shopping and family experience when the First Fridays open at 5 p.m. to an evening dining and entertainment experience once the music begins around 6:30 or 7 p.m. It will still be appropriate for families, but Knight said parents can choose whether they want to participate in the later activities.

“That naturally will bring in more of an evening flow,” he said.

Also, Reynolds said that the police plan to use the first several events as an education opportunity since most vendors and guests will be unfamiliar with the rules in an entertainment district.

City Manager Jeff Downes said that the city is supporting the Rocky Ridge business community’s efforts to create entertainment district events. Vestavia Hills can have up to three of these districts, and Downes said that learning from Rocky Ridge and seeing whether it is successful is an essential first step to any conversations about creating more districts.

“We need to see how this one entertainment district works and how we can make sure it creates fun, neat opportunities for our residents and those who want to do business in our city but make sure it does not create nuisances,” Downes said.

Morgan and the other business owners involved in the planning said they are optimistic about the potential that the district and the First Fridays will have.

“I think this can grow. We have all the right stuff at this point. We have the makings of it. We just have to do it,” Morgan said. “Once people come in; they see what Rocky Ridge is; they’re going to come back.”

To learn more about Rocky Ridge First Fridays and their first event on June 3, find them on Facebook or email rockyridgeartsandentertainment@gmail.com.