As one community Forte dies, a Big new Valley asset is born

Over the past two decades, Forte on the Fifty, Youngstown State University’s annual music and fireworks celebration in Stambaugh Stadium, has evolved into a rite of summer in the Mahoning Valley.

Sadly but understandably, Forte on the Fifty has been discontinued as university officials prudently decided to mothball it over legitimate public safety concerns.

The signature event began several years before it became integrated in 1999 into the Summer Festival of the Arts, the annual arts festival on and around campus. Throughout those years, it grew from a relatively small university-focused night of mid-summer music to productions featuring national recording acts punctuated by performers from the university’s prestigious Dana School of Music.

The concert — centered on the 50-yard line of the football stadium — aptly lived up to its creative name on two counts. It was a forte or asset of special value to our community. It was also forte in its loud and resonant music and most certainly in the ear-splitting boom-boom-boom of its pyrotechnics.

Time and circumstance, however, must silence those thundering bright bursts forever. As Forte on the Fifty grew, so, too, did YSU.

New buildings and new facilities began devouring what once were relatively vast open spaces. This year, construction has begun on the new Watson and Tressel Training Site on the former outdoor practice field and track east of the stadium where the fireworks show had been staged. In the interest of security for the new $10 million WATTS and those in and near it, the university had no choice but to permanently blow off the fireworks extravaganza.

Without fireworks, Forte on the Fifty would have been only a spent shell of its former self.

Do not despair

But for those who must get their fireworks fix, don’t fret. There are ample opportunities this weekend. Check out the listing inside today’s Vindicator for Independence Day events and fireworks displays throughout the region, including a major show tonight at about 9:30 in downtown Youngstown near the Covelli Centre.

And next weekend, there will be music of all styles — some of it no doubt just as loud and as vibrant as that performed at the Fortes of years past — at the 12th Annual Summer Festival of the Arts. The festival will feature more than 60 artists in a juried exhibition of paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, textiles and jewelry offered for sale in an artists’ marketplace, along with live performances in music, dance, theater and much more.

And if that’s not enough entertainment for you, several groups — city of Youngstown, YSU, Regional Chamber and Mahoning County Convention and Visitors Bureau — have collaborated on a series of events they call “The Biggest Weekend of the Summer” for the Valley..

In addition to the arts festival, the big weekend in and around downtown Youngstown next weekend will include The Tour of the Valley, the largest three-day cycling stage race in Ohio. And on Saturday night at the same time the Forte traditionally unfolded, the 2010 Youngstown Jazz Festival on Central Square will feature Grammy-winning performers Spyro Gyra and David Benoit.

We encourage residents from throughout the Valley to come out to any and all of the activities bundled in “The Biggest Weekend of Summer” July 10 and 11. In so doing, we can make it a new rite of summer, one that’s just as enjoyable as those fine Fortes of summers past.