With a fourth stage, a new owner and an entertainment budget doubled to $400,000, Pepsi Jammin' on Main is ready to crank it up Friday and Saturday with its biggest show ever.

        This could be a make-or-break year for downtown Cincinnati's only all-music street festival. Canceled last year after the April riots, the rock-based fest returns to a troubled downtown, an entertainment boycott and the promise of protests.

JAMMIN' TIMELINE

• 1993: Cincinnati Arts Festival Inc. is formed to develop downtown weekend festivals that showcase local and national musicians, and visual artists.     • 1994: Pepsi Jammin' on Main debuts with three stages and a lineup including the Brian Setzer Orchestra; it draws a two-night crowd of 20,000. Art on the Square, a visual arts festival, debuts.     • 1995: Jammin' returns, drawing around 25,000. Delbert McClinton and Southside Johnny headline.     • 1996: Jammin”s Saturday night show draws 20,000 but is closed by police after the crowd becomes unruly during final act Seven Mary Three. Friday's show, pounded by rain, draws a few thousand. CAF launches Sing Cincinnati!, a vocal arts festival.     • 1997: Jammin' returns with increased security. Friday's show is dry but cold, drawing 10,000; Saturday brings 15,000. Final Art on the Square and second Sing Cincinnati! are held.     • 1998: Arena rockers Cheap Trick, western swinger Ray Condo and rock noir band Morphine draw 35,000 over two days. Final Sing Cincinnati!.     • 1999: Headlined by the Goo Goo Dolls and Peter Frampton, Jammin' sells out Saturday night, drawing 30,000, with a weekend total of around 50,000. In October, CAF debuts WorldJam, a free, two-day world-music festival. The first day is canceled because of storms.     • 2000: Jammin' draws less than 20,000 each night for the Indigo Girls, Kool & the Gang and a Raisins reunion. The second — and last — WorldJam hits a cold spell with temperatures in the 40s and crowds in the hundreds.     • 2001: Jammin' is canceled after the April riots and a drop in advance ticket sales. Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra takes over production. CAF folds.     • 2002: CSO expands Jammin' with a fourth stage and 34 acts; the biggest lineup to date.

        With its potential for bringing tens of thousands of suburban and out-of-town music fans to the fenced-in area around Central Parkway and Main Street for two evenings of music, partying and spending, what was once a celebration of a thriving Main Street Entertainment District is seen as a possible savior for the struggling area.

        “We're hoping Jammin' on Main is the comeback player of the year for Cincinnati,” said Raymond Buse, spokesman for the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce.

        One resident of the area says there's a lot from which to come back. “I think we've hit rock bottom,” said Kate Schmidt, 31, of Prospect Hill, an artist and regular at Kaldi's on Main Street. “What makes a city interesting is all the small businesses, the boutiques, the galleries. The architecture here is so beautiful and all we've got are empty storefronts. It (Jammin' on Main) is going to show people that it's all right to come downtown.”

        With a day to go, none of the 34 acts set to perform has canceled because of the boycott. But it's likely patrons will pass protesters to get in. Amanda Mayes, chair of the action committee of the Coalition for a Just Cincinnati, said that a summer of “physical protests, signs and pickets and bodies,” will begin at Jammin', the first festival of the season.

        However, organizers say they're not overly concerned about the threats.

        Lt. Kurt Byrd, the Cincinnati police spokesman, was likewise unconcerned. “We don't anticipate any problems with Jammin' on Main,” he said. .

        “The event is important for many reasons,” said Mike Smith, executive vice president and CEO of Music Event Management Inc., an arm of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, which took over Jammin' from the now-defunct Cincinnati Arts Festival Inc.

        He believes Jammin' can be as vital to the city as “factories and auto plants. Caterers and ushers and tickets-takers and sound companies and piano tuners — all those people derive an income.”

        Jammin' creates 62 jobs and adds an estimated $3,4 million to the local economy, according to an economic study published in May 2000 by the University of Cincinnati. Of the 50,000 in attendance (the figure given for 1999, Jammin's biggest year) over two days, 10,000 were from out of town.

        Beyond the money, other benefits are harder to quantify. Cincinnati's national reputation has often been built on such unflattering images as the Ku Klux Klan Christmas cross, the Mapplethorpe trial and most recently, the 2001 riots and continuing racial conflict. Cincinnati needs Jammin' more than ever, said Mr. Buse. “It's greatly important to position Cincinnati as a rockin' city. Jammin' really adds to our image.”

        Downtown's Main Street club scene has “just died off so much since the riots,” guitarist Justin Williams, 21, said as his hip-hop/rock band Doctor Johnson set up Friday night for a gig at the Overflow on Main Street. “Jammin' on Main is a definite plus, 'cause you get a lot of people coming down here who wouldn't be here otherwise. And they can see that there's a lot of good music happening. It gets the word out.”

        Jammin' began in 1994, when Cincinnati music boasted a bumper crop of diverse, major-label acts: the artful folk-rock of Over The Rhine, the grungy grind of the Afghan Whigs, the quirky balladry of the Ass Ponys and the sweet soul-pop of Blessid Union of Souls. Original music ruled the local scene; the clubs were packed.

        “The idea was to promote the budding music scene in this town,” said Jammin' co-founder Rick Greiwe, now president of Downtown Cincinnati Inc. “When we (Cincinnati Arts Festival) first conceived it, the whole idea was an extension of Main Street.”

        CAF, for which Mr. Greiwe was the first executive director, also produced the downtown events Art on the Square, Sing Cincinnati! and WorldJam. None was successful. Jammin' became “a cash cow,” funding those other efforts, said former CAF president Melody Sawyer Richardson.

        Jammin' has had its problems, usually weather-related. Held on Mother's Day weekend, the festival has suffered through torrential downpours and unseasonably cold weather. This year's Jammin' forecast is sunnier: clear skies and temperatures in the low 70s.

        In 1996, along with rain, Jammin' made headlines when police closed down the festival and tear-gassed rowdy patrons. The disturbance followed a set by heavy rock band Seven Mary Three in which part of the crowd tore down stage barricades and created a huge mosh pit.

        Last year, a month after the April riots, facing protests by the budding boycott movement and poor advance ticket sales, Jammin' was canceled two days before the event.

        Its loss was a further blow to the Main Street clubs, which again needed Jammin”s influx of suburban music fans. It was the latest chapter in an uneasy relationship.

        “In the early years of Jammin', the idea was that the Jammin' on Main ticket permitted entry into many of the bars on Main Street,” recalled Bob Elias, who succeeded Mr. Greiwe as executive director of CAF. Other cities hold festivals, such as Memphis In May, with single tickets that include both an outdoor event and entry to a club district.

        “But many of the businesses (here) felt that it was not necessary for them to forego their cover charges. The (club owners') emphasis quickly shifted from, "Maybe you can help bring us some people,' to "We have enough people,' to "Wow, it's so crowded we think that you should pay for our entertainment,'” Mr. Elias said.

        For the clubs, said Mr. Greiwe, “Jammin' became sort of a pest. There were so many people they took up all the parking.”

        This year, no one's complaining about parking. “The more people we can bring downtown for anything is good for downtown, to show people that everything is safe, clean, no problems,” said Jim Cafeo, owner of the Main Street club Jefferson Hall.

        In bringing Jammin' back, Mr. Smith decided they needed to make a statement. “We needed to buy more acts. We needed to put more stages up. We needed to give more value.” Tickets for the event are $16 for a two-night pass, $12 nightly, available at Ticketmaster outlets.

        Bob Kramer, a co-owner of Mr. Pitiful's on Main Street, knows what a difference Jammin' can make. He was tending bar at Neon's down the street in 1994. “There was a buzz back then. There was a line outside Neon's at 5 o'clock to get in, and the festival started at 6. All the bars that were having bands, it was a given that it would carry over. I'm glad it's back. I'm looking forward to it.”

Union blamed for likely pay plan defeat
Weeks of rain slows farmers, developers
Church inquiry widens
Clubs anticipate Jammin' revival
Heavy rains force Fairfax to mobilize
Vice mayor issues apology
Boycott 'coalition' splits in two
New step for police reforms
Obituary: Post TV critic Mary Wood, 88
Schools note Ohio flag's birthday
Silverton tally: 287 yea; 287 nay
Tristate A.M. Report
UC wins share of $5 million health research grant
HOWARD: Some Good News
PULFER: A helping hand
RADEL: In Julia's memory
Intent argued in murder case
Miles guilty of killing girl, 3
Sanders-Portman a rematch
Students forced to pay to play
What is to become of Stewart?
Dems: Child support too costly
Grant home given to state
Mobile-home-park ruling breaks ground
Ohio auditor calls for end of village
State budget deficit keeps widening
Airport noise critics get new tool
Archdiocese checks complaint records
Autopsy finds drugs in drowned man
Jury approves death for man hired to kill pilot
Topic tonight: Birth control
Water rates could rise for 2 counties