ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Denise Foy is out to zhuzh up downtown Asheville just in time for the holidays.

“Zhuzh means to make more exciting, lively or attractive,” Foy explained. “But there’s like three different ways of spelling it and I chose the one with the double-o.”

Asheville is getting its zhuzh on between 6 and 9 p.m. tomorrow, Thursday, Dec. 12 at the Late Night Asheville event. Over 50 small businesses are participating in an evening of extended hours and festive cheer.

“We’re zhuzhing up the Asheville community,” Foy laughed.

Foy is the founder of ZHOOSH Creative, a creative agency that offers services like website design, copyrighting and branding assistance. Foy, a project manager for 20 years, wanted to bring her passion for event planning to aid the community after Hurricane Helene. She went door to door downtown from small business to small business.

“I was asking them if they wanted to be part of this holiday gift guide that I was creating and then I told a couple of them that I had this idea for a couple of years,” Foy said. “I wanted to do this late night event where the businesses stay open until nine and they have refreshments and drinks and snacks and such. They were all like, well, yeah, we would love that.”

That late night event became Late Night Asheville. Foy said that over 50 businesses will be involved, all offering refreshments for free in addition to keeping their shops open later.

Holidays treats aren’t Late Night Asheville’s only free festivities. Gray Line Trolley Tours of Asheville will be running their trolleys for the event.

“They said that they would be happy to participate and offer free trolley service that night, despite losing their facility. It was a huge wow moment for me,” Foy said. “I’m just suggesting that if people take the trolley they leave a kind donation for the driver.”

There will also be several musicians zhuzhing up the sound of the streets, including several artists from LEAF Global Arts and the Asheville Choral Society.

“It’s important this year more than any other year to support small businesses and to make sure that they thrive this holiday season,” Foy said. “They are the heartbeat of our economy here.”

For a full list of the participating shops, musicians and trolley stops, visit the Late Night Asheville event page.