MEDINA, Ohio -- Main Street Medina is starting a new initiative to boost small business in the city's Historic District. First Friday Medina will begin on Aug. 3, with participating businesses staying open until 9 p.m.

First Friday Medina will be held the first Friday of each month.

Matt Wiederhold, Main Street Medina's executive director, said the event is a new way to extend business hours for stores that normally close early, and will hopefully bring residents and perhaps tourists out shopping on Friday night to help boost the local economy.

"We know that the district has built up a lot with restaurants," Wiederhold said. "So when people are coming down to eat, maybe there's a half-hour wait. So our goal is while their waiting, maybe they'll walk around and spend their time going through the shops and seeing what we have rather than just sitting outside waiting for their table."

While new for Medina, events such as First Friday have already been successful in other communities. Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood, downtown Wadsworth and Columbus' Short North arts district have all created their own monthly events to help promote small businesses.

"We kind of stole the idea from surrounding communities that we felt were doing a pretty good and successful job of having special events and bringing people out at a time when they normally don't shop," Wiederhold said.

Wiederhold said they have reached out to Main Street Wadsworth for advice while developing First Friday Medina.

He said the events will start with some planned programming to go along with the shopping, and if they're successful, they may start setting themes for the monthly fetes.

"We may start that in 2019, but right now we just want to get Medina used to the idea of coming out on a Friday night once a month," Wiederhold said.

As of now, there's no official list of participating businesses, but Wiederhold has confirmed that JK Gift Shop, The Raspberry and The Rose, Something's Popping, All Fired Up! and Miss Molly's Tea Room and Gift Shop have committed to staying open late for the Aug. 3 event.

Sept. 7, Oct. 5, Nov. 2 and Dec. 7 have already been announced as future dates.

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