By Ben Shanahan

Special to the Sentinel-Tribune

Firefly Nights will shine again in downtown on June 16 and July 21.

Many fan favorites are back this year for the festival, said Visit BG Ohio Marketing Engagement Lead Kat Patterson.

There will be live music, bounce houses and lots of vendors and food trucks.

One of the main differences from last year is the time, which has been moved to 5:30-9:30 p.m.

“Last year we had it starting and ending a little later, but we found that this new timing makes it a more family-centric festival,” Patterson said.

They will continue to follow the DORA footprint for adult beverages.

“DORA is the designated outdoor refreshment area. This allows visitors to not be worried about whether they are in the DORA footprint or not,” Patterson said.

Running a festival takes a community, and finding volunteers when the high schools and Bowling Green State University are out for the summer makes that task even harder, she said.

“It has not been the easiest. I will say that when we do events that are during the school year that are not the Firefly Nights, the BGSU students are one of the first to volunteer, and we will have some for the July 21 festival, but the June date is a little more difficult. But the community rallies behind us and we will get plenty of people — but yes, we still need volunteers,” Patterson said.

Currently, for the June 16 Firefly Nights, there are 11 volunteers signed up for the 73 needed spots.

“We need 73 volunteers, and we have lots of spots open,” Patterson said. “We have a sign-up genius link that we have on our Facebook page as well as our website for volunteers who want to help out.”

It is also very time-consuming to plan and run the festival.

“It is close to a year-long process. There’s a little bit of time where we do not have to look at it, but for the organization group, we are volunteering year round,” Patterson said.

Both the June 16 and July 21 festival dates will have some different activities but will mostly be about the same event.

“A lot will be the same. There might be different live bands, food trucks, vendors, and some of the kids’ activities will be different, but a lot of it will look very similar,” Patterson said.

For more information on volunteering, visit https://www.fireflynightsbg.com/.