- Hello.

I'm Beth McMillan, and welcome to "Arteffects".

For one afternoon and evening every summer, Reno's Midtown District transforms into dancing in the streets, a walkable feast of delights for the eyes, ears and taste buds all made possible by a community that welcomes everyone to enjoy the fun.

(energetic music) - Dancing in the streets is a celebration of culture and art and celebrating Reno for what Reno is.

- There's a lot happening in such a short amount of time.

You're not even gonna capture everything that's happening.

- We closed down a mile of South Virginia Street and we have nine stages that line the street all playing a different genre of music.

(upbeat music) We have the crazy '80s stage.

The rock funk stage.

(rock funk music) The '90s and 2000s stage.

(pop music) We have Afrobeats.

♪ You go kill e somebody - EDM and dance.

(EDM music) Jazz stage.

(jazz music) The indie rock stage.

(indie rock music) The Latin stage, and at the northern most point we have the country stage.

(country music) When else do you get to dance or roller skate or party in the middle of South Virginia Street for a mile?

It's huge.

I don't know how to do anything small.

- It's a really nice way to bring our community together with a lot of different diversity and aspects that everyone loves, food, drinks, dancing.

(energetic music) The music isn't your thing?

We have art or we have vendors.

- We're here to show what woodworking is all about.

We do a demonstration on how to use a wood lave, but we also promote people to join the wood shucks.

- [Participant] Midtown is the nerve center of Reno where we're very focused on local culture and the arts, and it's just a really cool place that welcomes everyone.

- This all started with the creation of an art walk 15 years ago that ran for 10 years.

Pulled a few of the key participants in the Midtown Art Walk and I just said, Hey, guys, I think I got a crazy idea dancing in the streets.

It's the business owners coming together and they're the ones funding it.

They're the ones paying for the artists and the stage.

So they're really curating a personal experience.

- It's super important for me personally and the Midtown organization to keep dancing in the streets free and then we ask the community to donate two, five, 100, whatever they want to give to help keep it free for those that can't afford it.

- It's the community working together, thinking about creating a neighborhood and a place that the community loves.

(upbeat music) - It really just warms my heart to see all these kids out here having a good time.

Typically I teach at the school, but here, you know, we have them walk up and they're just like, Hey, can I try strumming the guitar?

Watching them just have that fun, have that aha moment of like, I like music.

I like doing this thing.

And for some people, that could turn into a whole career.

For me, I loved it so much that now I'm going to college majoring in music education because of it.

♪ But here's my number - So this year, we introduced the new stage of '90s and 2000s music, with '90s, more like rave style music with different DJs.

♪ So call me maybe (upbeat music) - The Afrobeats stage has a lot of cool artists that come actually from the African continent.

- In Nigeria, they see Abraham Lincoln as a hero.

So they believe that the American Civil War is also part of the Nigerian and African history.

So that is what actually inspired my work to actually bring the African Nigerian perspective of how Africans view the American Civil War and Abraham Lincoln in general.

(Afrobeats music) ♪ I belong to you ♪ Oh baby you go kill e somebody ♪ - And they even had a artist coming from Jamaica this year?

(reggae music) - Hey, you killing it Reno, let's go.

Hey!

- And they also have an African-themed fashion show with garments from Africa to show the different styles over there.

(Afrobeats music) - When I came up with this event, I wanted to create something that's unifying, and the love of music and the arts is one of the ways that we do that.

- The first two years, the event brought in 10,000 people each time.

Last year we tripled that.

So I'm not saying a number this year.

I'm just gonna be pleasantly surprised for whatever it is, as long as one person shows up.

(upbeat music) - How'd it go?

- It blew my mind.

I'm excited.

You know, the community showed up, and I feel this is why I do it, right?

This is why the community is why we all do it.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Funding for "Arteffects" is made possible by Sandy Raffealli with Bill Perce Motors.

(bright music) Heidemarie Rochlin, in memory of Sue McDowell, the Carol Franc Buck Foundation, and by the annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

(bright music continues) (energetic music)