Mark DiGiorgio runs 727 Instrumental, the nonprofit that organizes the Party in the Square concerts. Credit: Maddi Jane Brown | Central Current

Mark DiGiorgio dropped out of high school at age 16 because, he says, “I’m not a morning person.”

“I’m 53 and I’m still late for work every day,” jokes DiGiorgio, senior project leader for Dwyer Architects in Syracuse.

Last Friday, though, DiGiorgio arrived in Clinton Square by 9:15 a.m. to set up for that night’s Party in the Square, a series of downtown events he’s been building since 2021.

The puddles from the square’s trademark fountain were still evaporating as DiGiorgio and a crew of family and friends began setting up tents, tables and drink stations, hanging sponsor banners and prepping the stage and food truck locations for the 5 to 11 p.m. event.

DiGiorgio takes vacation days from his job to stage the Friday parties, which this year included R&B Night with the Blacklites on July 11, Country Night with the Beadle Brothers July 18 and 70s & 80s Night with the Gold Dust Gypsies on July 25.

All the concerts are free, and if you haven’t experienced one yet, the last two Party in the Square events of 2025 are Party Rock night with the Jess Novak Band and The Mid Daze on Friday, Aug. 8, and Faceless, a tribute to hard rock band Godsmack, on Friday, Aug. 15.

Part of the proceeds benefit 727 Instrumental, a nonprofit DiGiorgio founded to provide free musical instruments and lessons to underserved students in Syracuse who want to play an instrument but can’t afford to buy one.

DiGiorgio wants to elevate his city with musical events that raise money to nurture young musicians. His efforts are fueled by an experience he had growing up on the North Side at 727 Pond St. — the house number that became the name for 727 Instrumental and his music promotion business, 727 Entertainment.

As a little boy entering third grade at Webster Elementary School, he was offered a chance to learn a musical instrument and chose the saxophone. He started lessons using the school sax, but learned that after a month he was expected to acquire his own instrument to continue.

His parents both worked to support their five children – his dad at the city Department of Public Works and his mom as a janitor at Roxboro Road Elementary School in Mattydale. Spending a few hundred dollars on an instrument was out of the question, his dad explained.

“I never lost the sensation of having to tell my instructor that I was going to have to quit,” DiGiorgio said.

His music teacher ended up arranging for him to borrow the school’s instrument during the school year. He couldn’t bring it home for the summer, but continued to play through eighth grade, he said.

He thinks if he was able to own an instrument, he would have played sax into high school and maybe to this day.

The experience fueled a dream of providing instruments for underserved children that’s finally coming to fruition. Last year DiGiorgio founded 727 Instrumental and this year he delivered the first two instruments — a saxophone and a viola — to students at his former elementary school.

The gifts were supported by the Reller Family Fund via the Syracuse Community Foundation and 727 Entertainment, with plans for future donations of instruments and six months of free music lessons at four area music stores.

DiGiorgio continued to pursue live music “vicariously” as he built a career in architecture and project management.

After dropping out of Fowler High School in 10th grade to work for a cousin’s construction business, he found a passion for architecture and “how things are put together” that rivaled his love for music.

At 19, he passed a placement exam to study architectural drawing and design at Onondaga Community College, and he has since worked for local contractors and architecture firms.

During college and his early career, he became a huge fan of a weekly downtown event that brought thousands of people to the James M. Hanley Federal Building for live music, drinks and community.

The Party in the Plaza was held Wednesday evenings from 1980 through 2009 by volunteer group the Updowntowners, and for much of its 30-year run it featured $2 beers, local bands and a happy after-work crowd.

Mark DiGiorgio and his team arrive early in the day to begin setting up for Party in the Square. Credit: Maddi Jane Brown | Central Current

“I started going when I was 19 or 20 with a fake ID,” DiGiorgio said. “In 1998, I started working for DalPos Architects at the Clinton Exchange Building, half a block from the Federal Plaza, and it became a weekly tradition to walk down to the Party in the Plaza to blow off steam after work, meet friends, share some drinks and listen to good music. It was always a fun time.”

In 2013, DiGiorgio started a music booking business called GigSMACK that eventually spawned 727 Entertainment. He has booked hundreds of local shows including an annual music fest, SMACK Fest, that’s celebrating 10 years at the Regional Market’s F Shed on Sept. 5.

In 2020, he sought to replicate the former Party in the Plaza as Party in the Square in Clinton Square — just in time for the 2020 summer of Covid-19. “We had all the bands booked and, boom, everything shut down,” he said.

In 2021 he tried again, booking 13 dates. Five were rained out, leaving eight that attracted just a couple hundred people each due to Covid fears.

DiGiorgio stuck it out and adapted to changing times. As people came back out in 2022 and 2023, he found that $2 Coors Light beers were no longer a draw.  Now he sells $10 craft beers, wine slushies, hard seltzers and ciders.

Last year he changed the parties from Wednesdays to Fridays because city ordinances require weeknight events to shut down at 9 p.m. but weekend events can run until 11.

“This way we can have the bar open two more hours, and people who want to party don’t need to worry about having to go to work the next day,” he said.

He also had the lightbulb realization that Clinton Square wasn’t booked on several of the Saturdays after his Friday parties. “We spend all these hours setting up on Friday, why break it down that night?” he thought. “Why not have another festival on Saturday?”

This year he booked 10 events, three by leaving the venue set up in the care of security overnight Friday and returning the next day for a Saturday fest.

Mac & Cheese Fest featured a food truck mac & cheese competition with 80s tribute band Pop Rox on July 12. The first annual Bar-B-Cuse Fest — named by DiGiorgio’s 18-year-old daughter, Sophia — was held July 19. Beloved Grateful Dead tribute band Dark Hollow headlined the Dead is Alive Fest that drew more than 3,000 people July 26.

DiGiorgio’s events make money from alcohol sales and 10 percent of profits earned by local food trucks and craft vendors. He has been able to hire an employee who writes grants and recruits corporate sponsors, as well as attracting city and county support.

He has forged relationships with local leaders by involving them in events; Assemblymember Pam Hunter helped judge the Mac & Cheese and Bar-B-Cuse competitions, and Common Councilor Marty Nave also helped pick the best mac & cheese (won by Birria Queso Taco food truck for a $200 prize).

“Mark is working to get events like this downtown, which helps the city’s financial base,” Nave said. “And he’s doing it to support things we overlook, like a child wanting to play an instrument but can’t afford it. There’s a lot of hidden talent out there, but some parents don’t have the means to support it.”

At DiGiorgio’s first presentation of new instruments to two youngsters at Webster Elementary on June 26, he asked band director Bill Sokolowski why he requested help for only two kids out of his 80-member band. Sokolowski told him, “I didn’t want to get greedy.”

DiGiorgio said he teared up watching a boy named Emmanuel’s face light up as he accepted a shiny new alto saxophone.

“That kid looked like me,” DiGiorgio said.

Mark DiGiorgio plans more presentations to kids at Webster, then his next alma mater, Grant Middle School, and eventually throughout the Syracuse city schools. He welcomes donations of “very gently used” instruments, financial support and sponsorships at www.727instrumental.org.

Correction: This article initially stated that the Party in the Square event drew people to the John M. Hanley Federal Building. The federal building is named the James M. Hanley Federal Building, and the story has been corrected. Central Current regrets this error.

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Janet Gramza is an alumnus of Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Comminications and Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. She has 30 years experience in journalism and is a veteran...