Youngstown plans fests for holidays

October 19, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

By GUY D’ASTOLFO

YOUNGSTOWN

The city will welcome the holiday season Dec. 3 with its annual holiday parade, festival and tree lighting ceremony downtown.

Businesses will get into the act by decorating their storefronts and windows. “The theme this year is an old-fashioned and traditional downtown Youngstown Christmas,” said Lyndsey Hughes, director of downtown events and marketing, at a news conference Tuesday. Prizes will be awarded to the best-decorated building, she said.

The festival will run from 1 to 7 p.m. in the 20 Federal Place building concourse, and will include hands-on children’s activities, carolers and other family-oriented attractions. The parade will begin at 3 p.m. at Andrews Avenue. It will march down East Federal Street to Central Square, where the tree lighting will be between 4 and 4:30 p.m. Afterward, children can visit with Santa Claus and get their photo taken with him inside 20 Federal Place until 7 p.m.

The parade and festival is sponsored by the city, First Night Youngstown, 21 WFMJ-TV and StreetScape.

First Night Youngstown, the annual family-oriented New Years Eve entertainment event downtown, revealed the winner of its admission button art contest at the press conference.

Rayne Lee Blakeman, 14, an eighth-grader in Springfield Local schools, is the winner. The daughter of Tracy McQuillan of Youngstown and Bill Blakeman of New Springfield, she participated in a class at Students Motivated by the Arts that was assembled to create FNY logos and taught by Sandra Cika. Rayne has been involved in SMARTS, a joint project of Youngstown State University and the city school system, for eight years and hopes to pursue a career as an artist, musician or writer.

Her logo incorporates elements that depict music and time: a G-clef and the numbers on a clock. “I’ve always been interested in music and in how clocks work,” she said. The logo has a red backdrop behind a stylized city skyline that Rayne said represents the sun going down and coming up.

Two new entertainment venues have been added to the First Night lineup this year: the new OH WOW! Children’s Center for Science and Technology on West Federal Street, and the YMCA building. Other sites will be the Steel museum, Masonic temple, Choffin Career Center, St. Columba Cathedral, SMARTS Center, Trinity United Methodist Church, Oakland Center for the Arts, Covelli Centre and First Presbyterian Church. The evening of entertainment will begin at 4:30 p.m. Dec. 31.

First Night has always featured two fireworks displays — one at 9 p.m. for children and another at midnight — but that is in jeopardy this year because of funding shortages, said Elayne Bozick of the organization. FNY has a $40,000 budget but has been hurt by a reduction in sponsorships and other funds.

Bozick said non-profit organizations can help raise funds through the pre-sale of FNY admission buttons. Revenue from the buttons, which are $10 and give admission to all venues all night, will be split between the selling organization and FNY. Interested groups can call 330-744-9966.

Vendors and groups who want to take part in the parade and Santa festival on Dec. 3 should can pick up an application at the office of downtown events on the sixth floor of city hall.