Thousands enjoy Black Expo concert downtown - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

Thousands of people packed downtown Friday night for Summer Celebration.

On the American Legion Mall, people enjoyed and danced to music from Gladys Knight, ConFunkShun and Zapp.

"This is more of an adult event," said Donna Brewer-Turientine who added she was thrilled to see Gladys Knight perform.

"It's for the grown folks. That's right," added Brandon Hutchison, who was also there to enjoy the music.

"Normally on the nights we have the old school concert, you basically have a lot of adults," explained Reverend Charles Harrison with the Ten Point Coalition, a faith-based group made up of churches, groups and individuals concerned about violence in the community.

Saturday is when thousands of teens are expected downtown for Summer Celebration events. Like last year, 200 adult volunteers made up of clergy and citizens will be there, too, along with 400 police officers just in case there's a problem.

A problem like two years ago, when gunfire broke out, wounding 10 people, including children. The shooting turned out to be gang-related.

"We have to make sure that gangs and cliques don't come downtown where they try to confront one another who have been beefing with one another for awhile," said Harrison.

So just like last year, organizers have asked parents to come with their children and do the parenting, instead of totally relying on volunteers and police.

"It is a parenting issue, because what we end up doing is babysitting thousands of kids," added Harrison.

"It's not a place to drop your kids off and leave," added Brewer-Turientine of the events downtown.

"When we was coming up, that's what our parents did. They went with us," said Hutchison.

An 11 p.m. curfew is also in place for those 14 and under. Teens aged 15-17 years old must be home by 1 a.m.

If necessary, officers will bring children out past curfew to a parking lot at the corner of Illinois and Maryland for their parents to come pick them up.

Summer Celebration events