Stories

The theme for this year’s celebration was Revisiting Our History: Reclaiming Our Community. 

This year, we estimate that 5,500 people visited the Towpath Trail for the Downtown Akron Sakura Festival. 

On the wintry Saturday afternoon and evening of February 15, 2025, just over a thousand people settled into the vibrant red and gold of the Akron Civic Theatre to welcome the Year of the Snake during the Downtown Akron Lunar New Year Celebration. 

As always, we’re grateful to the thousands of fans—of Amy Sherman-Palladino’s comedy-drama television series, and of a good cup of joe—for making the Smells Like Snow Coffee Festival a smashing success. 

The late afternoon and early evening of Saturday, October 19, 2024, were a sweet, sunny 70 degrees. Downtown Akron’s Main Street between Cascade Plaza and Cedar St. was decked with towering cornstalks, a quirky assortment of pumpkins and gourds, and fragrant bales of straw—an apropos backdrop for yet another successful Fall Fest. 

On Saturday, October 5, Cascade Plaza was decked with paper flowers, colorful streamers, national flags, papel picado, and multilingual banners in honor of the Akron Latin Festival, a celebration of Latin and Hispanic cultures, and of Hispanic Heritage Month. This year’s celebration was the fourth ever, and the second in downtown Akron jointly presented by Proyecto RAICES and Downtown Akron Partnership (DAP). 

Have you ever looked around your city and wondered what it looked like before you knew it? I’ve spent over a year doing just that as a graduate student in Applied History and Public Humanities at the University of Akron. The work I’ve done in that time has made me view the city I’ve called home my whole life differently, and I want to share what I found. 

We are grateful to everyone who joined us in honoring Juneteenth downtown this year, and especially to the planning committee, staff, vendors, artists, volunteers, and community organizations that helped make this year’s celebrations welcoming, thoughtful, and joyful. 

On Sunday, April 28, 2024, Downtown Akron Partnership presented the inaugural Downtown Akron South Asian Celebration, a casual afternoon event that welcomed an estimated 300 people to Cascade Plaza to enjoy food, performances, activities, and vendors. 

By our estimates, eight thousand people attended the 2024 Downtown Akron Sakura Festival. 

Get to know the people who call downtown Akron home. 

This year’s downtown Akron Lunar New Year festivities brought 1,600 visitors together to enjoy performances and cultural experiences to usher in the Year of the Dragon. 

Since November 2020, Downtown Akron Partnership (DAP) and Community Support Services (CSS) have been working together to provide outreach and resources to those experiencing homelessness in downtown Akron. Now, thanks to support from Peg's Foundation, Tera Jordan is serving the neighborhood as a dedicated downtown homeless outreach worker. 

Where we led, 4,500 Gilmore Girls fans followed—that is, straight to Cascade Plaza on Main Street in downtown Akron, where people from at least 8 US states enjoyed the Smells Like Snow Coffee Festival. 

Saturday, October 21, brought roughly 1,500 visitors to Main Street and Cascade Plaza for an evening of spooky, festive, family-friendly fun. 

On Saturday, September 16, 2023, which happened to coincide with Mexican Independence Day, we were honored to kick off Hispanic Heritage Month with the 3rd Annual Akron Latin Festival. 

This year's two-day downtown Juneteenth celebration was filled with delicious food, great art, community togetherness, and most importantly, joy. 

In 2018 and 2019, Madrid-based artist collective Boa Mistura was commissioned to create a mural on the National Inventors Hall of Fame STEM Middle School Plaza. In May 2023, they returned to reinvigorate the space and celebrate with the community. 

Amid boarded windows, blockades ready to be moved into roadways, and palpable tension in the community, people still came downtown from far and wide to take a breath, spend time with loved ones, and experience the beauty of the cherry blossom trees that were just past peak bloom. 

To say this year’s Downtown Akron Lunar New Year Celebration was spectacular would be an understatement. The event, which was only in its second iteration, was humbling, heartening, and absolutely extraordinary by every measure. 

Wayfinding is about so much more than mere signage. Learn more about what we installed downtown in 2022. 

On Saturday, June 25, during a roller skating event, DAP welcomed five-time Guinness world record holder Dinesh Sunar to Cascade Plaza, where he was to attempt to break yet another world record.  

Multigenerational families, groups of friends, and community acquaintances sat together, broke bread, and celebrated Juneteenth with warm conversation and palpable joy.  

This summer, downtown organizations worked with Groundswell Design Group to come up with a plan for enhancing Cascade Plaza. 

If you’ve been downtown lately, you’ve probably noticed—it’s in full bloom! 

When the collies first approach the geese, they begin harassing them with a predatory stare called “the eye.” 

There are 472 cherry blossom trees planted along the Towpath Trail in downtown Akron. On Saturday, April 9, 2022, over a thousand people from across the state gathered to celebrate them. 

The Summit Suffrage Centennial Committee is working with internationally renowned artist Woodrow Nash to establish a Sojourner Truth statue and plaza adjacent to the Sojourner Truth Building on North High Street. 

As Phase II of Main Street construction wraps up, we’re looking forward to bringing more planters, more color, and more blooms to downtown Akron. 

What can we do as individuals and organizations to support our pollinators? We certainly can’t fix everything, but we can do our small part here in downtown Akron. 

If you think it’s a waste of time to pick up your dog’s droppings from downtown public and private spaces, think again. 

Between the dances and demonstrations by performers young and professional, the glittering display of fireworks at the end of the night, and the wonder on the faces of onlookers, we hope this was only the first of many such Lunar New Year celebrations to come.