City, App Developer Team to Announce Summer Events
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The full schedule of summer events in downtown Youngstown was announced this morning. Beginning with The Color Run, a 5K race around downtown, and the Pride Youngstown festival this weekend, 19 events will be held through the end of September.
“We’re going to be doing something every weekend except for Labor Day, which is the Canfield Fair,” said Michael McGiffin, director of downtown events for Youngstown. “My favorite thing is how diverse it is.”
Events include six music festivals, five ethnic heritage festivals, two races – Color Run and Panerathon – and Summer Festival of the Arts Weekend.
“That’s probably the biggest single weekend in downtown Youngstown, so we branded it all together,” McGiffin said. “There’s obviously the festival at YSU, but also St. Nicholas Greek Fest, Jazz Fest and the Gospel Fest all in one weekend.”
New this year is Slide the City Youngstown, when a huge water slide will be set up on the Market Street Bridge. The event, June 27, is a fundraiser for The Rich Center for Autism. http://www.slidethecity.com/events/youngstown/
At the announcement, Youngstown-based My City Hangouts – a mobile app listing restaurants with full menus, pictures and reviews – announced the new events section of its application. The company is also a sponsor for the full event schedule.
“It’s a one-stop shop, so you don’t have to use different apps to see what’s going on. We have things from restaurants to deals to events, really everything going on in the area,” said the vice president of My City Hangouts, Dan Mir.
The app currently focuses on the Mahoning Valley, but interest has been coming from other areas, Mir said
“We’re at about 200 places right now and we’re expecting to double over the next year. We’ve gotten interest from places in Streetsboro, Kent and western Pennsylvania,” added Jeremy Morales, company president. “We want to perfect it here first, though.”
As part of the partnership, My City Hangouts will handle some of the social media advertising for summer events, as well as serving as the city’s official summer event app.
“This partnership is for a local startup that we can utilize to help promote what’s going on. They’re downtown and we’re downtown, so it made sense to come together as a team,” McGiffin said. “As far as advertising for the events, My City Hangouts will be the place to go.”
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
