By Jessica Stamp
Twinkling lights of red, green and white will adorn the downtown Youngstown area for the Youngstown Holiday Light-Up Night & Flea on Phelps on Dec. 2.
The Youngstown community can enjoy the event from 4 to 8 p.m. with a parade starting at 6 p.m. followed by the Christmas tree lighting.
Rochelle Landy, associate director of Youngstown CityScape, helped plan the event and said this year’s Holiday Light-Up Night is going to be eventful.
“This is the first year that we have [had] the complete package in a while,” Landy said. “The Light-Up night, the tree lighting, it’s great [and] it’s really going to be action packed.”
The event will feature many activities for kids such as getting pictures with Santa Claus after the parade and free admission to the OHWOW! The Roger and Gloria Jones Children’s Center for Science and Technology. The event will also have over 60 vendors and other pop-up shops for the Flea on Phelps.
According to the Youngstown CityScape website, the Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC will be on the grandstand sponsoring music and entertainment with DJ Chip Banks from Loud Radio live streaming.
Landy collaborated with Melanie Clarke-Penella, special events coordinator for the city of Youngstown, to close roads for the parade and get permits for vendors that are a part of the Flea on Phelps.
“My part is working alongside of organizations like CityScape that are the main event organizers and my team on the city side is executing all the road closures for the parade and permits for any vendors helping out with the Youngstown Flea organization,” Clarke-Penella said. “It’s more logistics.”
Clarke-Penella said this is the first year since the pandemic the event is having different kinds of activities happening at once.
“I love that all of these downtown events are now simultaneously happening on the same night,” Clarke-Penella said. “I think it’s going to be very charming and we’re expecting a big crowd.”
Clarke-Penella said the businesses on West Federal Street will also be celebrating the holidays by participating in a window decoration contest.
The parade will feature floats and 12 high school marching bands. Premier bank, the event’s title sponsor donated $1,000 to each of the schools participating.
The parade starts at the Covelli Centre and loops around the city to West Federal St. and returns to the Covelli Centre.
The Holiday Parade will begin at 6 p.m. and it starts at the Covelli Centre.
The Covelli Centre was chosen as a starting and ending point for the high school bands to meet and to have the floats line up easily.
“The most important thing was a safe place for not only the floats to line up, the Covelli Centre’s parking lot was perfect for that but also each marching band school … has four to five school buses. So, that was a big factor on where to start,” Clarke-Penella said.
Youngstown Flea and Youngstown CityScape are looking for students to help with the event. Students can message Derrick McDowell at (330) 565-5483 or Clarke-Penella at (646) 675-1266 about helping to set up and take down the Flea on Phelps.
To read more about the list of events, visit Youngstown CityScape’s website or Facebook page.
