This Saturday, Oct. 12, Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation (OBCDC) will celebrate the people, places, and spaces that make Old Brooklyn a diverse, growing, and thriving Cleveland neighborhood just south of downtown.

OBCDC executive director Lucas Reeve and chief of staff Amber Jones have spent months with their team—gearing up for the inaugural OB StreetFest on Saturday, Oct. 12 from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.

“We're intending to celebrate essentially for the entire year,” Reeve says of the StreetFest and beginning of the 50th anniversary celebration. “We'll be kicking it off at StreetFest and then end in October 2025, probably on Old Brooklyn Day, which is October 14.”

The festival will span about a mile along Broadview Road, from Spring Road to Tampa Avenue, with plenty of live entertainment, food, shopping and socializing.

“We have a series of great bands lined up from Front Porch Lights to Apostle Jones on our main stage,” promises Jones, “and then we have a small stage where we'll have some acoustic music, some events, and some small [activities] for children.”

Additional music will be provided by acoustic trio Old River Road and special guest DJ SayWord.

Five to six food trucks and various food vendors will be scattered throughout the event. Local favorites like FrankieLynn Hot Dogs will be serving up delicious bites. “And Masthead Brewing Company will be hosting our beer garden throughout the whole event as well,” adds Jones.

The event will also feature local businesses, showcasing the heart of Old Brooklyn. Many participants are familiar faces from the neighborhood's Old Brooklyn Farmers Market, which has been running for nine years and recently expanded significantly.

Part of OBCDC’s decision to host OB StreetFest stems from the CDC’s “Broadway Reimagined” commercial corridor needs assessment conducted earlier this year. The study engaged hundreds of residents, small business owners, and property owners, and revealed a strong desire for community connection along Broadview Road.

Apostle Jones will perform at the Old Brooklyn StreetFest “People really wanted to feel connected to Broadview Road,” Reeve explains. “StreetFest is a way to signal that there's change going on across that corridor and bring people together in a place where they maybe haven't been used to gathering.”

Reeve says a partnership with Ward 12 Cleveland City Council member Rebecca Maurer and Ward 13 Council member Kris Harsh to bring more than $8 million in investment for storefront renovation programs and develop a plan to plant about 80 trees along the stretch in the coming year.

“Broadview has everything that it needs now,” Reeve notes. “There's great storefronts and it’s very walkable along that corridor. It just needed a little kickstart to get to the place where it can be what it needs to be to serve the community. You should really notice a significant change over the next two or three years as all these investments come to place.”

Many of the Broadview businesses will have their doors open during the festival, including the popular Old Brooklyn Cheese Company with its selection of cheeses, charcuterie, and mustards; Never Say Dive, “which is a fantastic new bar that opened up within the last year,” says Reeve, that will be serving cocktails and food; and many of the art galleries that are part of the neighborhood’s growing art scene.

Here’s a look at the day’s schedule:

• 12:15 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.: DJ SayWord
• 1:45 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.: Old River Road
• 3 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.: Remarks from Ward 12 Cleveland City Council member Rebecca Maurer and OBCDC executive director Lucas Reeve
• 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.: Front Porch Lights
• 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.: Apostle Jones