College Street businesses have teamed up to create a festive afternoon of music, food, drinks, and prizes to celebrate downtown Burlington’s fantastic local businesses this Friday, December 7th from 4pm-8pm.

Adding to holiday cheer will be the return of winters lights on downtown sidestreets. The winter lights create a warm, welcoming environment on the street to coincide with the festive winter season, provide additional safety through well lit streets, and are an effective way to help drive holiday traffic to College, Bank, Cherry, and Center Streets. The initiative is a collaboration between the BBA, Burlington Telecom, Burton Snowboards, and the businesses of the College Street Collective.

The College Street Collective is a group of locally owned businesses who banded together to create an event series and a printed local guide. All events and programs are funded entirely by the businesses involved, with lead sponsorship from Northfield Savings Bank, Common Deer, Liebling Boutique, and Burton. The Local Guide, which doubles as a parking map will be available year-round at participating businesses and around town.

Other participating businesses in this year’s event include: Bennington Potters North, Hydrangea Too Accessories for the Body & Home, Tailfeather, Michael Kehoe Ltd., Patagonia Burlington, Chop Shop Hair Design, Shop Tangerine, The Archives, Bistro de Margot, Ceres Natural Remedies, Battery Street Jeans, Computers For Change, Deli/126, Esc4pe, Finnigan’s Pub, Fletcher Free Library, my little cupcake, Onyx Tonics Specialty Coffee, Tight Squeeze Coffee Shop.

Details of each participant’s sale, food and drink offerings, special menu, live music, or other exciting programming can be found on the Facebook event and by following #collegestreetbtv on social media.

Attendees should also take advantage of 4-hour free parking at both College Street Garage (60 College St., entrances on College St. and Battery St.) and Lakeview Garage (41 Cherry St., entrance on Cherry St.). More information on downtown Burlington’s holiday parking promotions and an interactive parking map can be found at parkburlington.com.