Downtown festival celebrates diverse ethnic cultures in food and music

By David Skolnick

The ethnicity event included Hungarian, Greek, Irish and Hispanic foods.

YOUNGSTOWN — Diversity filled the city’s downtown with the sounds of various music and aroma of foods from various cultures at the Youngstown Oktober Ethnicity Fest.

The Sunday event on the city’s Central Square included Hungarian, Greek, Irish and Hispanic food vendors as well as live music from Greek, Latino and Irish bands. There also were area beer vendors at the festival.

“It’s great to have this downtown,” said Linda Durham of Leetonia. “It’s wonderful to have this here.”

Her husband, Jack, added: “It’s pretty nice. We came out for the music and the food.”

The entertainment attracted a group of parents waiting for their children at the nearby Ballet Western Reserve dance studio.

“We heard the music and figured we’d check it out,” said Felicia Armstrong of Austintown. “It’s a good way to spend the afternoon — get something to eat, get something to drink and listen to some music.”

The event occurred after the 35th annual Peace Race’s 10-kilometer run that began in downtown.

The crowd at the ethnicity festival around 3 p.m., four hours after it started, was thin as the temperature dropped and the wind kicked up.

Even so, people there enjoyed the music and food.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.