The cast of HBO's The Wire is set to descend upon its subject city next month as Baltimore's weekend-long free arts festival Artscape takes over July 17th-19th. The weekend will find 400,000+ people from all over the country flooding city center to get in on all of the  food vendors, live art installations and general creative chaos that tends to ensue. There will also be a bevy of live performances from the likes of Trombone Shorty, Brooks Long, thefestival's headliner George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic and a slew of other blues, hip-hop and soul crews from all over the state.

According to a statement from Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the panel discussion will focus on empowering the city's youth and, while still date and time-less, will certainly be an insightful one with some of the best brains in the biz, likely including the show's creator and Charm City native David Simon, and all at a time when the city's youth need it most. We'll be sure to update you with the details once they are announced, but it certainly seems like a good time to start planning a trip.