From Staff Reports

HENDERSONVILLE — Downtown Hendersonville recently decided to bolster activities for— and make revisions to — its monthly Open Streets weekend series, effective with its Aug. 1 event.

The next Open Streets — set Sept. 5 — will include added features, including sidewalk sales, free yoga, sprinklers to cool off under and more outdoor seating.

The revved-up event, which now has the longer name of LoveHendo-Shop Local Saturdays, has been redesigned to provide an open-air activity on Main Street on the first Saturday of each month.

The thoroughfare will be closed to vehicles all day from Second Avenue to Sixth Avenue. Many downtown businesses will offer outdoor activities, and cross streets will remain open to allow access to avenue businesses.

“Friends of Downtown Hendersonville decided to expand the Open Streets program that ran this summer to a monthly Saturday event,” the Hendersonville Times-News reported on July 29.

Parking spaces on Main Street in front of the Historic Courthouse will be reserved for handicapped parking.

“The open space on Main Street during LoveHendo will allow for alternative ways to experience downtown Hendersonville,” Lew Holloway, director of downtown economic development, was quoted as saying by the HT-N. 

“We encourage businesses to think creatively as they shift to a new normal.”

The HT-N added, “Businesses and experience-based noprofits are invited to apply for funding to support expanding their business outdoors and maintaining social distancing standards. Donations are being accepted to support the program at downtownhendersonville.org.

A separate event, at 12:30 p.m. Sept. 7 (Labor Day), will feature two dramatic passes by six airplanes over downtown Hendersonville piloted by the Bandit Flight Team in an aerial salute to America and, as the team noted, “provide an Apple Festival Parade from the sky.”