Along with Chillin’ with the Chamber, the wine stroll downtown and the stands set up by the Farmer’s Market, the event will also have a pep rally, Lion paw-looza, taking the La Carreta stage.
The Lion’s Roar / Jay Love

Hot August Night will be celebrating its 20th birthday for all of Hammond to applaud two decades of fun and community.

The event will take place Friday, August 14 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. in downtown Hammond.

“The Hot August Night Event is 20 years old,” said executive director of Downtown Development District Terry Lynn Smith. “It will be 20 years old on August 14, so we have a birthday and an event. The reason the Downtown Development District has these kinds of events is to get people to come downtown and have fun and see what we have here. We have retail, restaurants, great places to go and watch football games, a lot of merchants that have been here for awhile and some that are new. We always try to welcome both and promote their businesses, which is our major job. We also support the property owners. They pay the taxes that helps us do what we do.”

At the event, there will be “Lion paw-looza” at 6 p.m. at La Carreta’s where the university’s sports teams that are present will come out and introduce themselves. 

“We have the pep rally to kick off all sports and in particular football,” said Smith. “Dr. Crain comes; the coaches come, football players, soccer players, basketball players, whomever is on the ground at Southeastern playing sports will be identified.”

There will also be a wine stroll, which will give participants a fun new way to check out the stores. Wrist bands for the event will be available for purchase from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and are 20 dollars each. 

In addition to giving both students and Hammond citizens a good time, the event is also meant to give merchants a chance to show off their businesses exposing to students all downtown Hammond has to offer.

“This helps them [merchants] introduce themselves to people who don’t normally come downtown to shop,” said Smith. “They may come down for events, but never to shop. They don’t know what’s here. So, it’s an opportunity for the merchants to do this.”

Forty-one merchants will be showing off their businesses at the event, contributing their own unique touches to make it more special.

“The merchants are very enthusiastic about the event,” said Smith. “They like to dress up and have things look good in their stores. I believe Paris Parker will be having a fashion show in their windows, which is extraordinary.”

Since this is a cultural district, artists are allowed to sell their work without having to pay state or local taxes, there will be various arts on display in front of stores for sale. For those interested, in order to put their art up for sale, artists have to meet with the owner of the store they want to sell their art in front of.

The Chamber, which is a partner of the Downtown Development District, will be hosting Chillin’ with the Chamber and the Hammond Farmers Market will also be joining in, selling produce and crafts behind the Downtown Development District.

New businesses will be joining the Hot August Night family. These stores include Universities Specialty Shoppe and Gifts, Velocity Salon, W Salon, Richardson’s Fashion and Noland Stewart Salon.

For more information about Hot August Night, contact Downtown Development District at 985-277-5681 at extension 2.

There will be tables set up for the university’s athletes, where Hot August Night attendees can meet the teams, get game schedules and autographs.

The Lion’s Roar / Jay Love