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Federal Frenzy festival grows its fifth year

YOUNGSTOWN — Nearly two dozen local and regional acts will join headliner Robert DeLong at Federal Frenzy.

The downtown Youngstown music and arts festival — presented by Youngstown State University Penguin Productions, the city of Youngstown and The Summit FM public radio station — continues to add new attractions in its fifth year.

Event lead Megan Crees with Penguin Productions said this year’s fest will feature expanded art offerings with a second chalk artist creating work on West Federal Street and craft activities for families. YSUscape will create a pop-up park, turning parking spaces into a sitting area complete with turf and other amenities to create an oasis in the urban setting. The YSU Dance Club and A Time to Dance will offer dance workshops.

A digital display board has been added to the PenPro Main Stage, Crees said. It will be incorporated into DeLong’s performance, but it also will be used throughout the day to provide schedule information and promote the event’s sponsors.

DeLong performs either solo or with a rhythm section, playing multiple instruments and creating layers of sound using looping techniques and electronic effects.

He’s received extensive radio airplay with such songs as “Don’t Wait Up,” “Long Way Down,” “Revolutionary” and “Favorite Color Is Blue,” co-written with and featuring K. Flay.

DeLong has played such prestigious music festivals as Coachella and Firefly, and he played a sold-out show at Red Rocks Amphitheater with Tears for Fears.

Opening for DeLong on the main stage will be Youngstown’s Spirit of the Bear. This is the band’s third year playing Federal Frenzy. After playing at Suzie’s Dogs & Drafts in 2017, the band performed on The Summit’s 330 Stage last year.

James Harker, guitar player and singer for Spirit, said, “We were very excited last year with our time slot and playing on the Summit stage. This year, when we got the email (about playing the main stage), we started freaking out.”

The attitude increased when they found out they’d be opening for DeLong.

“We all went to see Robert DeLong in concert three years ago in Pittsburgh,” Harker said. “We just put out an EP recently that is more electronic sounding. The last album was more rock. This fits where we are as a band now.”

The reaction the band got that first year at Suzie’s inspired it to play bigger shows locally, and the band will have its third Fiction Forest music festival on July 13, moving this year to Westside Bowl.

Two Cleveland acts, Samfox and Mourning [A] BLKstar, will start the music on the main stage at 4 p.m., and The Summit 330 stage will start at 3 p.m. with Akron’s The Dreemers, followed by The Shootouts and Sam Goodwill.

In addition to the two outdoor stages, 17 acts will play indoors at five downtown venues on West Federal and Phelps streets — Suzie’s Dogs & Drafts, Rhine Haus, O’Donold’s Irish Pub & Grill, The Federal and the Lemon Grove.

“We have a talent team with Penguin Productions, and they really wanted to look for a diverse group of bands this year,” Crees said. “We have electronic music, but we also have a country band. Some are acoustic acts and some are rock. We’re really just trying to please everyone’s tastes.”

After drawing about 5,000 people the first three years, attendance jumped to about 6,000 last year. The count stops around 8 p.m., Crees said, so that total doesn’t count late arrivals. Organizers are hoping to match or exceed last year’s attendance on Saturday.

“We’ve been working on this since October,” Crees said. “Finally seeing all that work come together into an event that everyone really enjoys, I love seeing that.”

If you go …

WHAT: Federal Frenzy

WHEN: 2 to 11 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: West Federal Street, downtown Youngstown

HOW MUCH: Admission is free.

Band lineup

PenPro Main Stage

• 4 p.m. — Samfox

• 6 p.m. — Mourning [A] BLKstar

• 8 p.m. — Spirit of the Bear

• 9:30 p.m. — Robert DeLong

The Summit

330 Stage

• 3 p.m. — The Dreemers

• 5 p.m. — The Shootouts

• 7 p.m. — Sam Goodwill

Indoor

entertainment

• 2:15 p.m. — Delinquency Jones (Suzie’s Dogs & Drafts)

• 2:30 p.m. — Ziya MC (The Federal)

• 2:45 p.m. — Steve Wright (O’Donold’s Irish Pub & Grill)

• 3 p.m. — The Safest Ledge (Rhine Haus)

• 3:45 p.m. — The Broken Relics (Suzie’s Dogs & Drafts)

• 4 p.m. — JanaeSound (The Federal)

• 4:15 p.m. — Juliet (O’Donold’s Irish Pub & Grill)

• 4:30 p.m. — Pleading the Fifth (Rhine Haus)

• 5:15 p.m. — Northern Whale (Suzie’s Dogs & Drafts)

• 5:30 p.m. — Black Wolf & the Thief (The Federal)

• 5:45 p.m. — Very Good Friends (O’Donold’s Irish Pub & Grill)

• 6 p.m. — The VVilderness (Rhine Haus)

• 6:15 p.m. — Pella Penguins (Lemon Grove)

• 6:45 p.m. — East 9th (Suzie’s Dogs & Drafts)

• 7 p.m. — The Frank Toncar Project (The Federal)

• 7:15 p.m. — The Super Babes (O’Donold’s Irish Pub & Grill)

• 7:30 p.m. — Radio Lark (Rhine Haus)

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