The city and Columbus Visitors Center will make some changes for Fourth Street in an effort to bring more people downtown.
The Columbus Board of Works has approved a request by the Columbus Area Visitors’ Center to close Fourth Street on Friday and Saturday nights from 5 to 10 p.m. This will begin on April 2 and continue through Nov. 6, said Executive Director of Public Works and City Engineer Dave Hayward.
The request will facilitate 2021 Ethnic Expo events, he said. The city recently approved a one-year pilot program with the visitors center for work on downtown activation and this year’s Ethnic Expo. In the past, the event has been managed in-house through a part-time city position.
Organizers with the city of Columbus estimate that 25,000 people yearly attended the two-day festival highlighting food, music and an international bazaar. The event was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Executive Director of Administration and Community Development Mary Ferdon said earlier this year that the city is looking to hold smaller Ethnic Expo events spread out over multiple weekends this year.
For some of the weekends Fourth Street is closed, there will be specific events that take place, Ferdon said.
“There’ll be some of the smaller Ethnic Expo events,” she said. “I think there’s ‘Fourth on Friday’ events that are being planned, and then there’s some traditional events that may happen this year, but we’re not really sure yet. It really depends on a lot of factors.”
On other nights, the street will be closed despite there not being a specific event on that date. Ferdon said that this will give people a place to “safely gather and spread out in small groups” and provide restaurants space to spread out some as well. Street performers might be a possibility, and games such as cornhole will likely be available.
“So the whole idea is to give people a safe, fun place to be on Friday and Saturday nights after having been cooped up for a year,” she said. “… This is a great opportunity for us to just get people used to coming downtown Friday and Saturday nights.”
The Columbus Visitors Center will provide planning and guidance on the events, she said.
