YOUNGSTOWN — The COVID-19 pandemic has canceled some downtown festivals and threatens to eliminate even more.

“The response from the governor and Dr. (Amy) Acton, (director of the Ohio Department of Health) on summer camps, activities, festivals will help guide us on the summer events in Youngstown,” Mayor Jamael Tito Brown said .

Gov. Mike DeWine started a gradual reopening of the state last week. But when asked a few weeks ago about events, such as festivals and fairs, that attract large crowds, he said: “Big events where we are mixing together are pretty problematic as long as this monster is out there.”

The city has been without a downtown events and citywide special projects coordinator since city council voted Jan. 15 not to renew the annual contract of Terrill Vidale for the job.

Brown sought applications and received 33 in late February.

But with restrictions on gatherings of more than 10 people and the city’s financial problems — both caused by the virus — the search hasn’t progressed.

The search “is on hold until we have a greater understanding on what the next three to six months look like for mass gatherings and events,” Brown said.

When a person is hired, it would be the fourth coordinator in a little more than six years.

The Youngstown Pride Festival and the Greater Youngstown Italian Festival, which usually attract large crowds to the Central Square area, already have been canceled.

Also, on the Youngstown State University campus, the annual Summer Festival of the Arts, which was scheduled for July 11-12, was canceled because of COVID-19.

The Pride festival is usually held in late June while the Italian festival was scheduled for Aug. 2-4.

The organizers of the Pride festival — which celebrates the LGBTQ+ community — said the event “would not be conducive to social distancing of at least 6 feet” and canceled it.

The festival will return next year.

The Italian Heritage Foundation of Youngstown’s board of trustees also decided because of the pandemic to cancel its festival this year and said it would return in 2021.

“We’ve had meetings the last two months and talked about various scenarios, putting on something virtual or doing something smaller, more spread out,” said John Rossetti, the festival’s chairman.

“With everything that’s happening so far with this pandemic, we came to the conclusion that it just wouldn’t be safe, even in August, with no vaccine yet and with scientists and the government saying there’s going to be a second and third wave of this pandemic. We wanted to protect our volunteers, contractors and vendors, but also the public in general.”

Monetary commitments so far were minimal, he said, with health and safety issues being the primary concerns.

“We felt it was best to shut down before we paid out thousands of dollars and had to seek that back as refunds or litigation,” Rossetti said.

Meanwhile, the Simply Slavic Heritage Festival, scheduled for June 19-20, is up in the air.

“Simply Slavic is exploring multiple options with our stakeholders, and we will soon be communicating the path forward on how to celebrate a shared moment in a world of social distancing,” said John Slanina, its president.

JD’s Summer Songfest, scheduled for Aug. 29 on Champion Street next to the Soap Galley with national act Stephen Kellogg headlining, is still on for now, said JD Eicher, its organizer.

“Checking in with our event partner and monitoring things closely though,” he said.

dskolnick@tribtoday.com

agray@tribtoday.com