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Home-grown bands perform in hometown at Revive fest
YOUNGSTOWN
The Revive Music and Arts Festival is a hometown show.
It gives local and regional artists an opportunity to exhibit and perform their artistic talents for people from the Youngstown area where many of them grew up and developed their crafts, said Jim DeCapula, whose Jones for Revival musical group, was one of the headline acts for Saturday’s third annual Revive Music and Arts Festival that ran from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. at the B&O Station.
The first fest, in 2014 at the B&O, drew about 450 paid attendees; the 2015, on Federal Street, had about 600 paid attendees, and DeCapula was hopeful Saturday’s event would draw between 500 and 700.
DeCapula, of Poland, and Brian McCale of Youngstown, owner of Steel Standing Entertainment, which books and manages bands and produces festivals, put Saturday’s event together.
“Our goals are to give a venue for artistic expression and create a positive environment for people to enjoy it and just hang out with friends,” said DeCapula, lead singer and guitarist for Jones for Revival, a funk/psychedelic band.
“It’s exciting to bring people together for music and the arts,” McCale said.
Though most of the festival’s 18 bands have local ties, some, such as the Cleveland-based Tropidelic and Canadian Stephen Lewis, are in DeCapula’s and McCale’s network of performers and were brought in because the local organizers believed Youngstown audiences would enjoy them.
“We build relationships with bands I book that play in other cities,” McCale said.
“Interest in culture and the arts is growing in Youngstown, and we’re trying to create an event that contributes to that,” he said