Final Red Brick Friday of season will welcome back Miami University students

Credit: Katie Gabe

Credit: Katie Gabe

Red Brick Fridays will conclude for the year with a special Welcome Back “Streets & Eats” event this Friday, Aug. 26 to introduce the city to Miami University students.

The fourth Red Brick Friday of 2022 represents a partnership between the city, the chamber of commerce, the visitor’s bureau and the university’s student activities office. High Street will again be closed to traffic and Uptown businesses are invited to set up sidewalk sales, restaurants can serve food at tables in the street and games and activities will be available for all.

It is intended as both a welcome back to Miami students as well as a family event to toast the end of summer. Activities will go from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday.

“Red Brick Friday events are family friendly, free and open to the public although we encourage visitors to patronize their favorite establishments,” city Online Content Specialist Ashley Keeton said.

Activities will include an inflatable obstacle course, a zipline through Uptown, a giant Hungry Hungry Hippos game and food trucks in addition to restaurants which will be serving food.

Kim Daggy, director of Enjoy Oxford, the city’s visitor’s bureau, said Red Brick Friday will cap off the Welcome Week for students. The community picnic of the past tied to a summer Music Festival concert has been discontinued.

“Red Brick Friday is a good transition from the community picnic, which was not well attended by students. There is a big push to involve students in the community and this was well attended last year,” Daggy said. “It’s good to get the kids to know the community,”

She said they will have a table set up with information about the town, copies of the Welcome Guide and free things like sunglasses, chip clips and stickers.

“Students will eventually be alumni and alumni make great visitors to our town. We keep a focus on residents as well as visitors,” Daggy said.

She called the effort “a good partnership.”

Another partner in this week’s Red Brick Friday is the Oxford Chamber of Commerce. Chamber President Kelli Riggs said it is a great way to introduce students to what the city has to offer.

“We are trying to get Uptown businesses to hold sidewalk sales geared toward the students to get people to know what they are about,” Riggs said. “We will have a booth so businesses who are not Uptown can put something on the table.”

She said the week of welcome activities was to include a City Hunt yesterday with clues to various locations with prizes for those locating all of them. She said they also expect to have a coupon book to offer with specials for chamber members.

Friday’s event will include games for young and old sponsored by the Miami University Office of Student Activities, which contracted with SuperGames to bring many of the attractions here. They will also sponsor live music by The Wonderlands Band, a popular group in Cincinnati playing a fusion of jazz and alt-rock.

The 300-foot zip line is expected to be a popular attraction and live-action human-size game of Hungry Hungry Hippos should be good for great fun for players and viewers alike.

In addition to the Uptown restaurants, there will also be seven food trucks on hand including Oxford’s own Charcuterie Company. Oxford businesses, non-profits and Miami organizations and clubs are encouraged to set up tables to promote their organization Uptown.

The partnership combining town and university is expected to be a good time for all ages getting the new school year off to strong start.

“It’s a good collective effort,” Keeton said.

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