Wake Forest officials, businesses want big crowds, better behavior at Friday Night on White

WAKE FOREST, N.C. (WTVD) -- As people started to gather in Wake Forest well before the official 6 p.m. start time of Friday Night on White, businesses hoped the big crowds remained -- without the unwanted disturbances.

"It used to be a fantastic night, great moneymaker. But with the influx of a lot of unsupervised pre-teens, we've noticed the financial benefits falling down with the chaos going up," said Jennifer Wood, who owns The Burger Shop.

Last month, town leaders pleaded with parents, urging them to avoid leaving their children unsupervised during the event.

"We have seen parents driving by with a whole SUV full of kids, letting them out and then driving off. And so they're not really paying attention to what their kids are doing. This is supposed to be a family event," said Mayor Vivian Jones.

While the town emphasized that most youths are well-behaved, a series of incidents rattled retailers and restaurateurs, while drawing negative attention.

"We actually have one or two (businesses) that don't even open anymore for Friday night on White because they've had teenagers coming in and destroying property and just making a nuisance of themselves," said Jones.

"Unfortunately, just when we have a lot of unsupervised kids in here, they get up to trouble. We've had a vendor who, after this past Friday Night on White, just had a bunch of missing items, just boxes that were empty, some destroyed items, too," added Kristin Becker, Director of Communications for The Cotton Company.

In response, The Cotton Company, which usually requires anybody 16 and younger to have parental supervision, raised the age to 18 during the event. They also locked their bathrooms as they looked to prioritize customers' ability to check out the store.

"I would love for the teens in this area to have places they can go and activities that they can participate in. But at the end of the day, we need to keep in mind the safety of our local businesses in addition to just their livelihood," said Becker.

The Cotton Company, which includes goods and artwork from about 60 small businesses, is near the main music stage, an area that naturally draws a lot of attention. It hopes that the new policy changes will deliver a better overall experience for shoppers.

"When we get more foot traffic from events like Friday Night on White, it is really great for our vendors. It is great to get more sales, to get more people just knowing that we're here," said Becker.

Wood floated the idea of a designated area for youth, allowing them an opportunity to enjoy the festivities while not disrupting others.

"I think the vast majority of young people that come here are great and want to have a good time and are respectful. And I hate to see something very stringent go into effect just because of a few bad apples," said Wood.

Jones prefers better compliance rather than the town taking action, though acknowledged the concerns of business owners and community members.

"If we have issues again tonight, then we're probably going to institute a curfew. You know, we don't really want to do that. But when we put out the message, we had an overwhelmingly positive response to what we said and people saying, 'Yes, we need to do something.' So, we're going to do something," Jones said.

Despite the incidents, the importance of such events remains clear.

"It has been a big boon to our businesses," said Jones.

"I think one of the biggest things we see on Friday Night on White is people coming into the store for the first time. Maybe they've lived in Wake Forest their whole lives, but they've never really known what we were. 'The Cotton Company' (as a name) doesn't exactly tell you what we sell inside the store. So I think it's nice when people come in and they are having a new experience," added Becker.

"I think it is a great event (with the) potential to be even better with this minor problem being resolved in some way," shared Wood.

Friday Night on White runs from April through September. Tonight's event features music from Irresistible Groove and runs from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Outside of retailers who opt to extend their hours, there are several food trucks lined up along and around White Street.