Duke Robillard will be playing at SoundSession in July.

Providence Journal / Connie Grosch

Lynne McCormack, the director of art, culture and tourism for the City of Providence, says that she and the other producers of SoundSession “were having some really serious discussion about whether we should move forward, just like any arts organization is having about their seasons, and having to make some really difficult decisions.”

The weeklong festival of music from around the world was affected by the economy, and McCormack says that some of the smaller corporate sponsors canceled their support for SoundSession, now in its sixth year.

But something else happened.

“There’s been a lot of rallying around the event,” McCormack says, both inside and outside City Hall. Mayor David N. Cicilline and the city provided the same budget for talent as last year, she says, and with an influx of interest from the local music community, she says this year’s SoundSession, scheduled for July 5 to 11, will end up the biggest yet.

“A week before SoundSession last year, we got bombarded” by local acts looking to play the festival, says Providence Black Repertory Company artistic director and SoundSession co-producer Donald W. King. “Something broke open.”

So the basics of SoundSession are in place.

The centerpiece, as always, is a big free concert Saturday night, July 11, in Waterplace Park (this year featuring Edwin Pabon, Claudia Acuna and more), followed by a parade with thousands of concert attendees and community groups from across the city heading from the park to an all-night block party on Westminster Street in, behind and around the Black Rep.

There’s a free concert in Kennedy Plaza on Friday night featuring Latino rapper Fat Joe. And jazz and Latin jazz will take over the Black Rep all week.

But there’s also a rock night on Tuesday, July 7, with local groups Fairhaven, Brad Huff and Route .44, with DJ Ty Jesso, at the Black Rep, as well as Rhode Island blues legend Duke Robillard at Tazza on Westminster Street. Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel is pitching in with its own block party, as well as performances during the week from Barrington Levy, Ween and Sublime tribute band Badfish.

Other local music venues are taking part in the festival as well. All the venues are opening earlier than in previous years, and there might be some outdoor lunchtime shows to accommodate all the bands that want to play, King says.

When financial considerations meant that the festival had to discontinue the “mas camp,” in which people young and old work on costumes and clothes for the parade, Providence designer Michael Rinaldi stepped in and volunteered to run it.

On the eve of the second SoundSession, in 2005, King said, “The hope is that this evolves into a citywide ritual, like it is in Trinidad, like it is in Brooklyn. It’s a rite.”

Reminded of those words last week, King says that the festival is on the way there. “We’ve reached a certain threshold,” King says. “Everybody knows that the Labor Day parade happens in Brooklyn. And I feel like everybody takes it as an entitlement that Providence SoundSession is going to happen.”

McCormack says that “there’s a definite need for this event to happen this summer. There’s a spirit about it that’s really important in this community, and people recognize that.”

King says that running the festival is at the same time easier and harder than it has ever been. “Obviously, this is a difficult year financially for everybody. But certain formulas have already been in place.”

McCormack has been organizing concerts and art events for more than 10 years, and says, “I’ve seen things come and go. But I’ve never seen this kind of community engagement on something. . . .

“It’s what we would expect, because of the way that we intentionally reached out to the community and brought them in to own the festival. It’s not about Don King or Lynne McCormack or the mayor; it’s about a community festival that reflects the city in a way that you don’t see that often.”

For the schedule, go to providencesoundsession.com.

rmassimo@projo.com