Thousands of fans are making their way into town for the highly-anticipated college football face-off: the Georgia-Florida Football game.
The celebration starts Friday night at The Jacksonville Landing.
This is the first major event since the mass shooting happened in August.
The Jacksonville Landing had to apply for a special event permit this time around.
The permit was issued under three conditions:
- The landing had to agree to have no more than five, 10x10 bars in the outside common area
- Hire additional JFRD personnel to be at all entrances and exits
- The JFRD personnel will count the attendees to make sure the number of people doesn't exceed 7,500 at any given time.
Local businesses at The Jacksonville Landing are looking forward to every person that comes out to celebrate this weekend.
Paul Glaser says he's been looking forward to serving the enthusiastic Dawgs and Gator Fans.
"It’s off to a great start. Early week, not so well, but I’ve seen a lot of the RVers show up this week,” Glaser told Action News Jax.
#RIGHTNOW —Security is checking bags as fans enter The Jacksonville Landing. Addt’l JFRD personnel are also @ entrances/exits, counting attendees to make sure # of people doesn’t exceed 7500. @ActionNewsJax #GAFLGameWeekend pic.twitter.com/h5h7u3cvxK
— Courtney Cole (@CourtneyANJax) October 26, 2018
Glaser is the general manager of Fionn MacCool’s Pub in The Jacksonville Landing.
"Today we opened the doors and bam—everybody’s coming out so this is awesome!" said Glaser.
Glaser told Action News Jax it's been tough for businesses at The Landing.
They've had to take on two hurricanes and then the mass shooting in August.
Now he says they're ready to rock'n'roll.
With the additional JFRD in place and more than a third of the JSO on patrol, Glaser told Action News Jax he hopes no one is discouraged from coming out.
“This kind of event means a lot to us. We’d love to see a lot of the locals come down here and enjoy us,” said Glaser.
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