Hundreds expected for Santa Maria Downtown Fridays kick-off

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - Organizers with Downtown Fridays are excited to kick off the annual event on Friday.

Dozens of vendors are setting up their booths at Santa Maria Town Center West throughout the day.

For the past year, Downtown Friday in Santa Maria has been postponed several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The organizers did a virtual Downtown Friday last year to supplement for not being able to do it in-person.

On Friday, the downtown event is returning and will hopefully bring some semblance of normalcy back to Santa Maria community.

The event will have a Mobil DJ, food trucks and vendors. There will also be prizes being given away including a Google Home Hub.

Organizers will be placing COVID-19 safety guidelines for the event including mask wearing, hand sanitization stations, hand washing stations and social distancing protocols.

The event is set to be from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Find out what this event means to the community as well as local vendors who have struggled throughout the pandemic.