ST. CLOUD, Fla. — For the past couple of months, communities across central Florida have been preparing ways to ring in the new year.
South of Orlando, in the St. Cloud community, thousands are getting ready to attend the city’s 6th edition of its "Rockin’ the Cloud" new year’s event.
Though there may not be fireworks in Downtown historic St. Cloud, there will be a cloud drop and upwards of 8,000 people coming together.
Street closures will begin Tuesday morning at 6 a.m. between 10th Street and 12th Street, from Massachusetts Avenue to Pennsylvania Avenue and they’re expected to remain that way until noon Wednesday.
St. Cloud Levee Liquor & Gas isn’t your typical liquor store.
It serves as a gas station, offers a wide selection of alcohol for reasonable prices. But, above all, it’s mainly focused on taking care of its people.
“A lot of liquor stores — they’re just like — ‘get your stuff, have a nice day.’ Here, we have a huge focus on customer service, we want to be more than a liquor store, we want to be like in a sense a community place as well,” says Angelo Garrigos, store manager at St. Cloud Levee Liquor & Gas.
That’s why Garrigos says special events like the “Rockin’ the Cloud” event are important, since New Year’s Eve also happens to be one of the busiest nights of the year for him.
“It’s all synergistic, right? People coming back from the event, they want to go home, pick up a nice bottle for their family on the way home, you know, if they want to stop and grab some beers on the way there, like it all works out,” adds Angelo Garrigos.
Whether it’s at Levee’s Liquor & Gas or in the historic downtown of St. Cloud, the city says it’s the perfect opportunity for the community to come together.
“It definitely brings our community out, that’s what were here to do to provide a service to our community and to our citizens, so we love the entire city of St. Cloud coming out to ‘Rockin’ the Cloud,” says Special Events manager for the city of St. Cloud, Rose Testerman.
Not to mention this year’s three live entertainment stages will only feature Florida-based artists, adds Testerman.
Those performances will begin right when the event starts at 7 p.m. until 12:30 a.m., on the Main Stage.
The first performance of the night will be Megan Gunn on the B Stage, located on 12th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue at 5 p.m.
Artists will include Slickwood, Cubason, Afterglow and others.
What is unique is the city’s cloud drop at midnight, which special events manager for the city, Rose Testerman, says is done in commemoration of the city of St. Cloud.
Even though “Rockin’ the Cloud” is a family-friendly event, Rose Testerman says it may not be the most kid-friendly environment because at the end of the day, it’s still a New Year’s Eve celebration with lots of loud music.
The city says there will be various places for people to park from the parking lots at City Hall to the United Methodist Church on the corner of 10th Street and Ohio Avenue.
But they strongly encourage people to use ride-share services instead or contact triple A to avoid drinking and driving.