YOUNGSTOWN — Federal Frenzy will return to West Federal Street in 2025 and stay at Penguin City Brewing.

The free music and arts festival presented by Youngstown State University’s Penguin Productions will expand to two days, April 25 and 26, to accommodate both locations.

The event started in 2015 with downtown bars hosting local acts and an outdoor main stage at West Federal and Phelps streets featuring regional and national acts. As the event grew, additional outdoor stages were added, and the main stage moved a block down on West Federal closer to Central Square.

The COVID-19 pandemic moved the festival online for 2020 and 2021, and downtown road construction forced the shift to Penguin City the past two years.

Erin Driscoll, Penguin Productions’ advisor and executive director for student experience and residence life at YSU, said, “With the construction complete on the west end of Federal, we met with the city and talked with them about moving back to that part of town for this year’s Federal Frenzy. But we had such a positive relationship and experience working with Penguin City that we wanted to maintain that too.”

Festivities will start late Friday afternoon on April 25 at Penguin City with several local bands performing, followed by the traditional Federal Frenzy offerings 2 to 11 p.m. Saturday, April 26.

“It’ll give us an opportunity to have more bands play and start the party sooner,” Driscoll said. “It’ll be a really nice arrangement for everybody.”

Penguin City co-owner Aspasia Lyras-Bernacki said she and her husband and business partner Richard Bernacki have attended the event since it started.

“We loved when we were able to host it,” Lyras-Bernacki said. “We thought that was a lot of fun, but Federal Frenzy is about all of downtown, so I love the idea of tying it to West Federal and East Federal, and having one day on our side and one day where it used to be to support all of the downtown businesses. I think that’s a great idea, and I’m really excited about that.”

For the Penguin City portion, Lyras-Bernacki said they’re planning on bringing in multiple food trucks and maybe setting up a band market where all of the acts playing Federal Frenzy could sell their merch and meet with fans.

“We’re thinking of some fun giveaways,” Lyras-Bernacki said. “We’re just in the planning process, and those are some of the things we’re talking about.”

Driscoll said they hope to be able to announce the April 26 headliner no later than a month before the event, and if possible they’d like to have the lineup set before YSU students go on spring break at the beginning of March.

Penguin Productions receives far more applications from acts than it can accommodate, Driscoll said, and the festival’s expansion will allow more performers to participate.

Six acts will compete for one of those slots from 8 to 10 p.m. Friday for the Federal Frenzy Face-Off at Westside Bowl, 2617 Mahoning Ave. HeartBreakKings, Tay-O, Nineteenth Paradise, LARIE, Dombrowski and Currents Collide will perform in a battle-of-the-bands-style competition, and the winner is guaranteed a performance slot at the festival,

Admission is free, and YSU ioffers a free shuttle service for students between 7 and 11 p.m. Friday from the north entrance of Kilcawley Center to Westside Bowl and back. Students who scan their ID at the venue by 8 p.m. will be eligible to win one of five $50 Westside Bowl gift cards.