Definitely Downtown Events hope to invigorate city streets

A series of new special events in the heart of downtown — from music and movies to art and food — has been launched to lure people to the streets of Rochester and reconnect them with what the city has to offer.

Definitely Downtown Events will feature daytime parties, a night with the RPO and Movies with a Downtown View, as well as a Window Walk and Fall Fest.

“This is about creating a vibrant, thriving downtown, and special events are key to achieving this,” Rochester Mayor Malik Evans said at a Tuesday morning news conference at Parcel 5, site of many of the events.

The events series is spearheaded by the Rochester Downtown Development Corp. in collaboration with the city, Empire State Development, ROC2025 and the Rochester Downtown Partnership.

“A vibrant downtown is critical to retaining talent, regional economic growth, and greater community pride,” RDDC president Heidi Zimmer-Meyer said. “All of the events under the Downtown Definitely banner will grow a more appealing street-level experience and support the unprecedented levels of investment down here — over $2.5 billion since 2000.”

Events were designed with families and fun in mind, and organizers took note of similar undertakings that were successful in other cities.

“We wanted to find ways to get people walking around on the streets and enjoying downtown,” said Jenna Knauf, owner of the Bella Events Group, which is coordinating the events in tandem with ROC Royal Events.

The series kicks off June 8 with Midday Bash, the first of four such daytime carnivals at Parcel 5. Midday Bash — offering food trucks, music, lawn games and a little exercise and stretching — also will be July 14, Aug. 11 and Sept. 7 and runs from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

RPO Under the Stars will be on July 8 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. with Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik. Market Place will be July 30 at Parcel 5 and Fall Fest is set for Oct. 1 with carnival games and school homecoming theme.

The series concludes on Dec. 3 with a Lantern Walk from the Liberty Pole to the Roc Holiday Village at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park at Manhattan Square.

“Sometimes people don’t understand what they don’t know,” said Khadija Yawn, owner of ROC Royal Events. “We want to get people downtown and seeing how beautiful Rochester is.”

The Window Walk is meant to be a trip back in time, to when displays in the mammoth storefront windows of retailers capitivated shoppers.

Window Walk will be a series of seasonal murals and artwork from local artists on street-facing windows on buildings in the East End and Midtown districts. Artists will be paid, and can visit downtowndefinitely.com for more information.

“The real magic is making these spaces come alive, to bring the magic to the streets of Rochester,” said Vincent Esposito, Finger Lakes regional director for Empire State Development.

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