Grammy-award winning DJ and rapper Spinderella and Soul Train Music award-winning Dru Hill headline the third annual Night Circus: A District New Year’s Eve Spectacular scheduled Sunday from 7 p.m. to past midnight at Festival Park. “We are anticipating an attendance of 20,000,” says Ashanti Bennett, director of special projects for the Cool Spring Downtown District. Dominique Womack of Cumulus Media, Bennett says, will emcee the New Year’s Eve party that includes stilt walkers, fire dancers, roving magicians and food trucks, with partygoers ringing in 2024 at midnight with the raising of an 18-foot, multi-colored star — a symbol of the city — followed by fireworks. For a city that clamors for diversity and inclusion, we’re not seeing much of it this year with the live musical entertainment, although Spinderella and Dru Hill are talented entertainers and will not disappoint the New Year’s Eve attendees. Night Circus is facilitated, according to a news release from Bianca Shoneman, who is president and chief executive officer of the Cool Spring Downtown District, by the nonprofit on behalf of the city.
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If you are in for a more formal New Year’s Eve setting, The Last Midnight is scheduled from 8 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. at the Cape Fear Regional Theatre on Haymount Hill, featuring hors d’oeuvres, an open bar and dancing to the sounds of the talented Another Level. “Tickets are still selling, but we will be around 150,” says Mary Catherine Burke, artistic director at the theater. Cost is $300 per couple and $150 for singles. Black tie is preferred. Space, according to the theatre folks, is limited, with only 40 tickets available as of noon on Friday. Call (910) 323-4233. They say it’s going to be quite a New Year’s Eve gala to ring in 2024.
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If you are out Eastover way, you can join folks for the annual Flea Drop to bring in 2024. “We’ll have about 150 or 200 people,” Eastover Mayor Charles McLaurin says about the New Year’s Eve celebration, circa 2010. “It may be more than that. You never know. It depends on the weather.” The Flea Drop takes places from 10 p.m. to midnight at the Eastover Community Building, 4008 School Street.
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“We are excited to finish out a year that has seen notable successes for our state.” says Col. Freddy Johnson Jr., who hails from Stoney Point and is commander of the N.C. Highway Patrol. “Of those successes, fatal collisions are down around 7% statewide, thanks to the continued work by our members and promoting traffic safety. In the past year, we have made over 19,000 arrests for driving while impaired, which I truly believe attributed to the decrease in lives lost. The educational and enforcement efforts by our troopers ultimately saves lives every day, and this New Year’s Eve we will be looking to finish the year strong by being that visible deterrent needed to stop preventable tragedies. I ask all drivers to plan ahead prior to celebrating with alcohol and ensure you do not needlessly put yourself and others at risk by driving while impaired.”
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Fayetteville City Councilwoman Courtney Banks-McLaughlin apparently has a New Year’s resolution planned for Tuesday’s 5 p.m. council work session, according to a preliminary work session agenda, and it’s to call for censure of Mayor Mitch Colvin and fellow Councilman Mario Benavente. City View Today reached out by email to the councilwoman. The councilwoman did not respond to the City View inquiry.
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The December 22 shooting death of a 44-year-old man in the area of Orange and Chance streets, according to the Fayetteville Police Department, is among 50 homicides of 2023. That number, by my count, is the most homicides in city history.
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Quote of the year comes from Fayetteville Police Chief Kem Braden. “The sanctity of life is no longer sacred,” the 49-year-old chief told Mayor Mitch Colvin and the Fayetteville City Council on Aug. 28 about the city’s homicides one after another after another. “All parties and the recent crimes have no value for life or the rule of law. The crime scenes are no longer a somber place. I was at a crime scene this weekend or last weekend where there was singing and dancing in the middle of the crime scene where a subject was just taken away to the hospital.”
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All of us in this community, you can be assured, feel deeply for the family of Jada and Patricia Fields after the couple died Christmas morning when a motorist ran a stop light on Hope Mills Road, according to a Fayetteville Police Department news release, and collided with the Fields’ vehicle at Glensford Road resulting in the double fatality of the Fields husband and wife. Jada Fields, the innocent driver, was 47. Patricia Fields was 46. Michael Anthony Smith Jr., 26, according to the release, is charged with two counts of misdemeanor death by motor vehicle, reckless driving, a stop light violation, failure to reduce speed, driving with a revoked license, failure to register vehicle, no vehicle insurance, failure to display correct registration plate, a fictitious registration plate, an expired inspection, failure to wear a seat belt and a windshield tint violation. Smith is innocent until proven guilty. Jada and Patricia Fields reportedly were on their way to Jada Fields’ mother’s home to celebrate Christmas traditions. As a community, we cannot help but share in a family’s sorrow and grief of this Christmas Day tragedy.
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“Bill, thank you so much for including Dad in your annual list,” Karen Smith Knowles writes in an email about our Wednesday and Friday remembrances of those we lost in 2023. “He would have been so proud, honored and humbled to be remembered by you. At age 96, he was ready to go, but we were not. Thank you again, and I’m heading over to see Mom now and share this with her.” Remember your delightful father well, Mrs. Knowles, and still can see him at my front door so many times with those N.C. Senior Games athletic medallions hanging around his neck. Bill Smith was a good man, who walked among us in this community.
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“Bill, enjoyed reading your reflections on what is my most favorite night of the year,” Ben West, former pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church, writes in an email about our Dec. 24 column for Christmas Eve. “Peace.”
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“Victory United Methodist Church at 404 Quality Road has put up a blessing box for the community,” Mary Roberts with the church writes in an email. “This box works as ‘take what you need...give what you can.’ We are a small church that gives back as we can.”
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Don’t forget your black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day for good luck. Or the collard greens for money coming your way in 2024. At least that’s what Mama always said, and Mama could cook back-eyed peas and collards with the best of ‘em.
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One last time. No drinking and getting behind the wheel on New Year’s Eve and in the those early hours of New Year’s Day. Call a cab. Call a friend. Or you may find yourself calling a lawyer. And don’t forget those black-eyed peas.
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Remiss, all of us here at the City View Media executive offices along Breezewood Avenue would be, if not to express our gratefulness to you – our subscribers, readers, advertisers and supporters – for being with us in 2023. We are journalists with a purpose of keeping a community informed. The news never sleeps, and neither do we. Thank you, and wishing all a safe, healthy and prosperous 2024.
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Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
