Ticket

Ignite the Night and First Fridays Youngstown try again

Youngstown events washed out Fourth of July weekend will get re-Ignite-d this weekend.

Much of the programming celebrating America250 originally planned for the July 3 First Fridays Youngstown will take place this Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. The Youngstown Walk of Fame induction ceremony for musicians Billy Beck and Rick Ward will be added to those festivities.

Ignite the Night, an outdoor concert by the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra culminating in a fireworks display choreographed to live music, will take place on Saturday after being postponed from July 5.

First Fridays will get off to an early start with a performance by The Feral Cats at 1 p.m.

DJ Bopman will be spinning Motown and Funk at the North Phelps Street Stage during a marketplace featuring local artists, makers, retailers, food vendors, nonprofit groups and community organizations.

Sydney Stalnecker and James Desharnais will do Walt Whitman poetry readings at 6 p.m., and the work of artist Daniel Rauschenbach will be on display.

Following the Walk of Fame induction at 7 p.m. will be the Jam-Hi Band at 7:30 p.m. on the West Federal Stage.

Events coinciding with First Fridays Youngstown include OH WOW! On Tap, the annual beer, wine and spirits fundraiser for OH WOW! The Roger & Gloria Jones Children's Center for Science & Technology from 6 to 9 p.m., and YO NIGHTS! at the Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre from 7 to 10 p.m. No Funk No Justice will perform at the amp, and Varsity Club and Draught House are the downtown business partners.

A new addition to the Ignite the Night festivities on Saturday is a Youngstown Flea event from 2 p.m. until sunset in Wean Park.

YSO Music Director and Conductor Erik Ochsner said the originally planned program will stay the same. The only change is guest vocalist Jackie Popovec, lead singer of The Vindys, has a concert in Port Clinton that night, so Youngstown native Asia Littlejohn will be singing "The Wizard and I" from the musical "Wicked" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from the movie "The Wizard of Oz."

Littlejohn was a member of the Youngstown Connection and played violin in the Youngstown Symphony Youth Orchestra as a teen. She has performed as a soloist at New York's Lincoln Center and her stage credits include musical theater and opera roles.

"Golden" from "KPop Demon Hunters," the third song Popovec was scheduled to sing, now will be performed as an instrumental number.

The final 20 minutes of the concert will be accompanied by a fireworks display choreographed to the music by Grand Finale Fireworks LLC in Willoughby.

The soundtrack for the fireworks show will include John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever," Morton Gould's "American Salute," John Williams' "Raiders of the Lost Ark" march and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 and 1812 Overture.

If you go …

WHAT: First Fridays Youngstown and Walk of Fame induction ceremony

WHEN: 5 to 8 p.m. Friday with induction ceremony at 7 p.m.

WHERE: West Federal Street, downtown Youngstown

HOW MUCH: Admission is free. For more information, go to firstfridaysyoungstown.org.