Several hundred people attended special events this weekend in Oak Bluffs, reducing gridlock downtown and adding to the festive atmosphere.

And it all happened because of a chance meeting on Memorial Day at the Dragonfly art gallery in Oak Bluffs.

That’s when Michele Holland, the town’s multicultural coordinator, bumped into Ron Mitchell, who plans community events through his company, RDM Productions of Roxbury. They were at the gallery for an opening, and they started chatting about problems that developed during last year’s Fourth of July weekend, which drew large crowds of people to the middle of Circuit avenue. By the time the conversation was over, Mr. Mitchell had taken on the task of helping plan a more orderly holiday weekend.

“Through some dialogue about the challenges that the Island was getting ready to face over the Fourth of July,” Mr. Mitchell recalls, “we came up with a concept for some positive entertainment for a large visiting population that had never before been serviced.”

That was only about six weeks ago. And town selectmen did not approve any activity until about two weeks ago.

Nevertheless, on Friday and Saturday, hundreds of people came to hear music that Mr. Mitchell and his colleagues planned at Inkwell Beach and the Oak Bluffs School. Both events featured live R&B and positive rap performers. The events were dubbed the Juneteenth Day of Independence, a Multicultural Celebration

“It was extremely hard,” said Mr. Mitchell, 35, who is also a Channel 4 news cameraman.

To pull it off, he called on two friends. Courtney Grey of Cambridge is the president of North of New York Productions. Lisa Peterson, a production assistant at RDM, was also instrumental in the planning. They traveled here with seven other people who helped.

Overall, they were pleased with the way things turned out. People enjoyed the events.

“For the most part, the crowd wants to be somewhere in a social environment, instead of just on a sidewalk,” said Mr. Grey, 33, who also teaches Afro-Brazilian Dance and is an acid jazz singer.

“Positive entertainment for a large group seems to be the best way of giving them options so that they can have something to do with their time. If this whole weekend was a test to see whether the idea has merit, I think the test did prove that the idea was a good approach.”

Miss Peterson said they were able to bring a positive message to people.

One of her duties was also to coordinate the health display -- which featured educational material about alcohol abuse and other health issues.

“The whole premise for a lot of what we were doing was a safe holiday,” said Miss Peterson, who was also in charge of transporting a massive sound and lighting system to the Island.

The group thanked town officials such as Mrs. Holland and her husband Bob, police chief George Fisher, town selectmen and Steamship Authority staff, especially Gina Barboza.

And they hope to come back again sometime for even better events.

With more time, they would be able to attract bigger name artists, they said.

Mr. Grey said they have ideas about better crowd control, and with more time, they could get big-name performers. They also have ideas for other events, such as activities for children and events that can benefit local nonprofit groups. The need for activities is strong, they said.

“There were things we could have done to make it even better,” Mr. Grey said. “We certainly did not get a chance to show everything we can do.”

Mr. Mitchell agreed.

“We look forward to coming back and doing more positive entertainment,” he said.