SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC NEWS) — Heading into the second day of Jazz Fest in Syracuse, many more performances and venues are in store for the city. Wednesday featured smaller, closer performances as the events were held in over 20 establishments across the city. Today workers were on Water Street as Hanover Square became a venue with a stage and speakers.
The Jazz Festival brings a lot to the city of Syracuse besides some nice background music; it brings many more people together downtown. This means more business to the local pubs and stores that open their doors to a surge of customers.
“It’s an all-day thing, so people always take breaks. They’ll walk over … and they can use the bathroom, they can have a drink,” said Joe Rainone, the owner of Mulroney’s, which is located near the festivities.
His business actually had a live performance inside the bar, which according to him, drove up foot traffic exponentially.
“Four to six, usually there’s no one here. And we had a really, really good crowd,” the owner said.
Many businesses like his flourish during this time of the year, a needed boost in the summer as the university students are gone. Well, not all of the university students, namely the Syracuse University Jazz group, which is composed of nothing but students. The group is part of Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts and performed at the Hanover location.
“I can’t believe I’ve been blessed to be able to stay here for free and just play music,” said Luke Brady, the group’s bass player.
Brady said that they’ve been practicing to prepare for this moment and are ready for the chance. As their set continued, many fans started getting into the performance and even stood and gave them applause as they finished on the stage.
Jazz Fest will continue into Sunday, with Friday being the opening of the Clinton Street stage. Due to the festivities, there will be road closures near Clinton Square.
