Rock The Block

This downtown Winston-Salem (nighttime) party started 5 years ago. Since I'd never been, I decided that I should support this downtown revitalization spotlight event. I went last night, and to be honest, I was disappointed.

You see, I grew up going to Winston-Salem's annual Street Scene, which was an all day downtown party. There were several musical mainstages, all varities of food vendors, tons of folks selling all sorts of stuff, and thousands of people. (If you've been to Greensboro's Fun Fourth then you've an idea of what Street Scene was like.)

Rock The Block had some musical mainstages, and I certainly can't fault the event promoters if I didn't like the bands/DJs that were performing. Although I was starving, I did not want to purchase my dinner from any of the food vendors. Seven bucks for a small plate of fries? Come on. (I did have dinner at Foothills Brewery. While service was a bit slow - didn't they consider the increase in traffic due to Rock The Block? - the food was delicious.) There were hardly any "stuff" vendors. So few were there that it would have been best to place them all in one area, instead of sporatically down 4th Street. (I was pleasantly surprised about a "booth" for Pure Romance and I spent 30 minutes chatting it up with the party consultants.)

I'm going to show my age here, but the thing that disappointed me the most was the lack of age ranges of the attendees. The majority were teenagers and early 20 somethings dressed for hooking up. While I wasn't the oldest person there, at times I certainly felt like it.

I did run into some folks that I hadn't seen in while - Ashley and I worked together at US Airways, and I hadn't seen her since our office closed. She's now married and 4 months pregnant! Cade's favorite daycare teacher, Ms. Charity, stopped and chatted about Cade's adjustment to kindergarten and staff changes at the daycare. ANd Zack, soon to be seen in Little Shop of Horrors was enjoying a night off from rehearsal.

All in all, I am glad that I attended, though I hardly "rocked the block". I think next year I'll sit this one out.