How the Fest was Fun

Find fun at summer festivals and locales throughout Ohio

By Garth Bishop

Summer is right around the corner, and after the spring we’ve had in central Ohio, it’s looking to be a great one.

The list of summer fun options is long, and although most of the entries on it promise to be a good time, whittling down that enormous list to a small, manageable set of plans is no laughing matter.

That’s why CityScene is here to highlight some of the best –and strangest – festivals going on this summer in our capital city and throughout the state.

Around Ohio

Ain’t That a Kick in the Head

If you’re nobody ‘til somebody loves you, Steubenville’s most famous native is far from nobody.

For the last 20 years, the Spot Bar in Steubenville – located in eastern Ohio – has held the Dean Martin Festival. This year’s festival, scheduled for June 14-16, promises all the usual amusements – impersonators, karaoke, singing contests and all manner of other musical entertainment.

The festival began as – and still is – a fundraiser for musical scholarships at local high schools, though its scope has greatly increased.

“It started in front of the courthouse with about 10 people,” says Joe Dialbert, owner of the Spot Bar.

Live P or Fry

It’s the most alliterative festival you’ll find in Ohio.

The Perch, Peach, Pierogi and Polka Festival in Port Clinton – say that five times fast – is entering its eighth year this year. The event, set for Sept. 1-2, is organized by members of the Knights of Columbus in Port Clinton, located in northern Ohio along Lake Erie.

The polka is the major draw, with a set of first-class bands on the ticket this year, and the pierogi-eating contest is popular as well. All the food serves as a callback to the area’s history.

“This is the heritage of Port Clinton –perch comes out of Lake Erie, peaches are from Catawba Island just outside of Port Clinton, pierogis are (celebrated) because a lot of people who settled here are Slavic people,” says Jerry Arnold of the Knights of Columbus.

Stuck on You

As if it weren’t multipurpose enough already!

Crafts, parade floats, sculptures, portraits and clothing are just a few of the things made from the titular fix-it fixture at the Avon Heritage Duct Tape Festival, slated for June 15-17. Avon, a Cleveland-area city known as the Duct Tape Capital of the World, is home to Duck Tape brand duct tape.

The festival is in its ninth year, and this year’s theme is Duct Tape on Safari, which means animal shows, a parade, a craft tent, a scavenger hunt and more, all themed around that sticky stuff we use to repair whatever’s broken.

“Everyone from teenagers to adults is crafting with it,” says Jennifer Allanson, a festival spokeswoman.

A Festival with Appeal

There’s more than one way to split a banana. The banana split was born in 1907 in Wilmington, in southwestern Ohio, and every year since 1995, the town has held the Banana Split Festival in celebration. This year’s will take place June 8-9, offering up a classic car cruise-in, live entertainment, a banana split eating contest and all manner of vendor booths.

A crowd favorite every year is the banana split masters’ competition, in which local chefs square off to see who can come up with the most incredible combination of the traditional banana split ingredients. Renditions have included a banana split pizza, a banana split flambé and a banana split cocktail.

“They take it pretty seriously,” says Debbie Stamper, executive director at the Clinton County Convention and Visitors’ Bureau.

Hamburger in Paradise

Burger King slogans notwithstanding, here’s a real opportunity to have it your way.

The National Hamburger Festival in Akron – scheduled Aug. 18-19 – brings in 15 to 20 vendors serving more than 50 different types of burgers, along with fries, milkshakes and other summertime favorites.

This is the seventh year for the festival, held in Akron because Akron is one of four cities that claim to be the hometown of the hamburger’s inventor. Besides the multitude of vendors serving up slabs of ground beef, the festival also offers a professional burger cook-off, an amateur burger cook-off, a burger eating contest and a burger costume contest for kids.

“We even have a Miss Hamburger pageant to crown a festival queen,” says Drew Cerza, festival founder and organizer.

Taking Flight

There are plenty of reasons for you consider landing at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force this summer.

The museum, situated at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in western Ohio, has a huge assortment of memorabilia on display, including more than 300 missiles and aircraft. In July, it will add to its collection a NASA space shuttle crew compartment trainer, a high-fidelity representation of the space shuttle orbiter that was used for crew training and engineering exercises.

The museum will also play host to a number of entertaining events this summer, including monthly family days, a performance by the Glenn Miller Orchestra on May 19, a military tribute concert on June 29 and a Space Fest event May 11-12.

“There’s going to be a fun run, stargazing, astronaut presentations and hands-on activities during those two days, all related to space,” says Sarah Swan, public affairs specialist for the museum.

Other Statewide Festivals to Consider

• The Toledo Museum of Art: Events all summer

• Crazy Cardboard Regatta: July 14, West Chester

• Wellington Cheese Festival: July 20-22, Wellington

• Vintage Ohio: Aug. 3-4, Kirtland

• McComb Cookie Festival: Aug. 4-5, McComb

Art Springs Eternal

Take in some culture in a town known for its artistic expression at one of the Yellow Springs Street Fairs.

There are two such fairs scheduled for this year: June 9 and Oct. 13. Yellow Springs has been putting them on for some 30 years, and they have evolved substantially in that time, says Karen Wintrow, executive director of the Yellow Springs Chamber of Commerce.

More than 200 arts, crafts and food vendors line four streets throughout the Downtown area of the western Ohio village. Yellow Springs is known for its artistic community, and there are plenty of high-end items available for purchase, but there are also many viable options for the casual Street Fair shopper – all of it original.

“Everything has to be handmade,” Wintrow says. “We don’t have any purchased items or resale items.”