First Night Youngstown attracted some first-timers.

First Night Youngstown attracted some first-timers.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mild weather and a host of family-friendly activities brought hundreds of New Year's Eve revelers downtown early Friday evening for the city's fifth annual First Night celebration.
"The weather is so nice," said Kim Husk of Boardman.
"I've thought about coming before, but it was so below-zero cold [in years past] that I just stayed home."
Activities ranging from horse-drawn carriage rides to magicians were sprinkled across downtown. Music was everywhere, from Christmas carols in Central Square sung by the Spirit of the Valley Sweet Adelines group to ethnic music found in various venues.
The event, billed as a celebration of the arts, started at dusk and ushered in the new year.
Husk and her friend Leda Farrell, also of Boardman, turned out early Friday. Coming to First Night was a last-minute decision; Farrell bought the buttons that are used as admission tickets Friday and called Husk and asked her to come along.
The draw
Husk said she liked the idea of an alcohol-free celebration.
"It's just so nice to go out and not have to worry about people drinking and getting in fights and all that New Year's stuff," she said.
The two friends were heading up Wick Avenue toward the Masonic Temple, where they planned to eat a Swiss steak dinner and enjoy some musical entertainment.
Music -- of the Slavic variety -- was the draw for Dee Carmendy of Struthers and Conrad Vagasky of Masury. They joined others in the basement of Trinity United Methodist Church who were toe-tapping to the Eastern European music of Libby & amp; The Tamburitzans.
Libby Fill of Campbell performs with her family and other musicians just about every week. She's looking forward to 2005, when she'll celebrate her 60th year as a performer.
"I do it to keep the culture going," Fill said.
Her audience was appreciative. Thirty minutes into her 90-minute set, about 50 people had stopped by to listen. Fill kept telling the crowd she was going to take a break, but along with her daughters Kathy White, Sally Fill and Stacie Vesolich and son-in-law Steve Vesolich, she continued to play.
Plenty to do
A few blocks away, horse lover Jordan Crum, 6, of Austintown, was getting ready for a buggy ride. She was in line -- decked out in a special New Year's hat and necklace -- to hop into a carriage drawn by two horses.
The 15-minute rides are a popular First Night attraction; by 7 p.m., a line had formed for a spot on one of the two carriages.
Renee Swecker of Austintown and her family were first-timers at First Night Youngstown. Armed with a schedule she'd printed from the First Night web site, Swecker, her husband Lenny, and their children, Drew, 12, and Tara, 7, were hurrying toward the public library for arts and crafts. The family planned to stay until midnight.
"We're here for the fireworks, definitely," Renee Swecker said. "We'll be here until 2005."