It's August, the so-called dog days of summer, and the weather is spectacular in Erie, Pa. Warm, sunny days give way to cool nights, which makes for comfortable sleeping. Of course, too much is happening in Erie these days to think about sleeping.

Management personnel at the city's new $44 million Bayfront Convention Center spent most of Thursday showing off the place to convention planners from across Pennsylvania. The center is located right on Presque Isle Bay, giving visitors the impression that the building, which looks like a ship, almost floats on the water.

The planners said they were impressed, which you'd expect at this time of season. A few blocks south of Erie's waterfront, the city's annual late-summer jamboree -- CelebrateErie -- is in full swing. It's a celebration of food, music, art, history and many other aspects of Erie that make this such as enjoyable place to live.

The Erie Times-News has been providing readers with advance, in-depth coverage of the celebration for nearly two weeks now.

The festival started in 1977 as "We Love Erie Days," which was kind of a ripoff of the old "I Love New York" theme, although Erie's late Mayor Lou Tullio always claimed the promoters of "I Love New York" swiped the idea from "We Love Erie Days."

No matter. Erie can still be rather parochial at times, but we're not as parochial as we were 30 years ago when it was blasphemy -- at least within earshot of Tullio -- not to agree that you, indeed, loved Erie.

CelebrateErie is a step up in class from the old Erie Days, which seemed more "carnival" than festive. If you decided to eat dinner at the various boothes at Erie Days, by day's end you'd swear you could feel your arteries clogging. One can only eat so many funnel cakes and corn dogs.

Mayor Rick Filippi, who served one 4-year term as Erie's leader, transformed Erie Days into CelebrateErie. Filippi's administration stumbled badly in many ways on many occasions, but CelebrateErie was a triumph -- maybe the best thing that came out of his term in office.

There's always a rivalry among mayors, and current Erie Mayor Joe Sinnott, who foiled Filippi's re-election plans, had some different ideas on how CelebrateErie should be run. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell gave Erie a wad of cash last summer to pay for a performance in the middle of town by the Beach Boys. So, Sinnott's first CelebrateErie was a success.

This year should tell the tale if Erie is still moving forward with its late-summer celebration, or if we've taken a step backwards.

Times-News reporters will descend on the celebration this weekend to take the pulse of celebrants. I'm fairly certain local folks will be quite forthright with their opinions. Earlier this summer, on the Fourth of July, many people hated the fireworks show over Erie's harbor, which had been billed as the "Boom on the Bay."

Never mind that the show was free and it took place on a beautiful summer night in a lovely setting. Some people became ensnarled in a traffic jam that delayed their homecoming by more than an hour. That's a rarity in these parts.

Check back with us next week, and we'll give you our take on how successful CelebrateErie 2008 was. In the mean time, I'm sorry but I have to run. They're serving funnel cakes and I need some fuel for my arteries!

-- Kevin Cuneo

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