DOWNTOWN STREET FESTIVAL Pig Iron arts foundation hopes event will be annual

Music and dance performances and art will be on display.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Organizers hope a downtown street festival this weekend will spark an annual arts event.
The festival will be from 2 to 10:30 p.m. Saturday on North Phelps Street, between Commerce and Federal streets downtown.
Pig Iron Literary and Art Works, an arts foundation associated with Pig Iron Press, is organizing the event. Pig Iron has its offices on North Phelps.
There will be a variety of music and dance performances, poetry readings and storytelling and art on display.
Pig Iron has taken its typically indoor events, such as poetry readings, outdoors into the city and in Austintown recently, said Jim Villani, managing editor. An outdoor event downtown was the next logical step, he said.
The annual outdoor Festival of the Arts in July at Youngstown State University was an inspiration, he said.
There are lots of activities downtown already, so Pig Iron wants to strengthen that profile with its own event, he said.
"The goal is to say 'Hey, there's another thing happening in downtown,'" Villani said.
Anticipated attendance
The seven-member committee organizing the event is a cross section of city and suburban residents in Mahoning and Trumbull counties. Villani said he hopes the audience will come from as far and wide.
The hope is for 1,000 or more people to come through during the course of the festival, he said.
There will be about 40 contributing artists involved.
About a dozen artists will exhibit their work, which will be for sale. Others will sell their work from a half-dozen storefronts on Phelps.
Performances will include a magician, dancers, gospel singers, folk and acoustic music, poetry readings and storytelling.
Main performers will be the John Reese Project from 6 to 8 p.m., which plays jazz, and Geo C & amp; Tha Storm from 8 and 10:30 p.m., which plays rhythm and funk music.
There also will be a flea market and book sale, and food and refreshments will be for sale.
rgsmith@vindy.com