This weekend Main Street will be closed down for a celebration of the arts.
The 17th annual Black Swamp Arts Festival will commence 5 p.m. tonight with a combination of music, art and food on Main Street. The main events – two art shows, one tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and one on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. – include a juried art show and the Wood County Invitational Art Show. The juried art show includes over 100 juried fine art displays from artists across the country, according to the festival’s Web site. This brings in over 60,000 people to attend the festival.
The extra attendence is hoping to bring in extra business for downtown, including Jed’s Barbeque and Brew on Main Street.
Ryan Johnson, a manager at Jed’s, said they will be running their usual specials for the weekend including ‘Freakball’ special for $5.55 today, their rib specials tomorrow and the Big Chicken Dinner on Sunday.
‘Usually there’s no big change in the amount of people we see in here during the festival weekend,’ he said. ‘Anytime there’s something going on downtown, if it rains, we see a big boom in business.’
Freshman Jason Thayer said he is looking forward to the food offered at the festival.
‘I love the foodstands,’ he said. ‘I mean, you get nice greased-up fries, cheeseburgers and Philly cheesesteaks. I’m also looking forward to trying the alligator I’ve heard about.’
Thayer said he also enjoyed the music.
‘There’s always a lot of great bands that perform at the festival,’ he said. ‘Last year, there was this really great R’amp;B woman I loved.’
The music will begin on the main stage between East Wooster and South Prospect streets. Tonight, Shaggus opens the evening. Other bands playing then include the Kinsey Report, Ruthie Foster and John Nemeth.
The festival continues tomorrow with the arts events open from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m., with bands playing until the last band starts at 9:50 tomorrow night. There will be four stages with music this weekend including the main stage, an acoustic stage located on the courtyard near Huntington Bank, an electric stage in Grumpy Dave’s Pub and a family entertainment stage located on North Main Street near the Wood County Public Library.
One of the groups that will be playing at the family entertainment stage include the HeeBeeBGs. This will be their second year performing at the festival, according to Ethan Starkey, a second-year member of the group.
He said the HeeBeeBGs is a group through the Men’s Chorus at the University consisting of about 14 members.
‘We’re always having to change out members due to graduations and everything,’ he said. ‘We’re currently holding call backs for the upcoming year.’
The HeeBeeBGs will be performing tomorrow at 2 p.m. by the library, and their set will include songs such as ‘Warning’ by Incubus, ‘Lady’ by Styx and a Disney Medley, Starkey said.
