Fireworks show sparks energy downtown

By Ed Runyan

One Poland man said he saw ‘tons of people’ on his way to the fireworks show, many of them families.

YOUNGSTOWN — The performance of the band Jones For Revival, which served as a warm-up act to the Fourth of July fireworks show at the Covelli Center, was a sort of organized chaos.

The band played in the center of Central Square — downtown’s intersection of Federal and Market streets — as the normal traffic of a Saturday night went by.

Police cars and fire trucks on their way to a call went by, as well as curious motorists, while the Youngstown quartet played on.

The audience, which started out as just a few young adults in Pro-Keds, enjoyed the popular band’s freestyle jazz fusion sound.

Eventually, thousands converged on either side of Market Street, including couples and families.

A firetruck on its way back to the North Side stopped at the traffic light beside the band and honked playfully to the music.

By 9:30 p.m., when it was time for the fireworks, the downtown was a beehive of people on a night with perfect weather for fireworks.

It made Don Rich, 50, of Canfield nostalgic for an earlier time in Youngstown.

“I always heard from my parents how you used to not be able to walk down here because of the crowds, and I’d like to see it come back,” he said.

The last time Rich remembers seeing so many people in Youngstown was when he was about 10 years old, when he went shopping at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

“My mom used to take me down here all the time,” Rich said.

Not far away, Mike Smith of Youngstown and Mango Mago of Boardman had pulled up wooden chairs on the sidewalk to enjoy the band.

“I’m looking at all the buildings, and I’m like ‘It looks like Pittsburgh,’ ” Smith said.

Smith said he considered going to the fireworks show at the Canfield Fairgrounds but decided to come downtown to see Jones For Revival, which recently returned to town from a two-week East Coast tour and Jonesfest, a festival named for the band held last month at Nelson Ledges Quarry Park in Garrettsville.

As the time for the fireworks show grew near, the area close to the Covelli Center filled up, and police moved the crowd off the Market Street Bridge, where they had hoped to watch the show after the parking lot on East Front Street had nearly filled up.

The parking lots all along West Front Street also filled up, causing some to estimate that this year’s crowd was larger than last year’s.

Jim Cook of Poland said he brought his daughter, daughter-in-law and four grandkids down to the Covelli Center lawn to watch the 15-minute show to try something different, adding that the presence of the Covelli Center has changed perceptions of the downtown.

“I passed tons of people,” Cook said of the crowds. “It’s nice to see families together.”

runyan@vindy.com