Sun 9/25 @ 11AM-7PM
The time is running out to get your street festival on.
Ohio City invites you to a street festival that showcases the best the neighborhood has to offer. The Ohio City Street Festival will feature live music, local food, craft brewed beers, arts and cultural programming and family-friendly activities. Best of all, the event is free and open to everyone.
This year’s festival takes place on Sun 9/25 on W. 25th St. between Lorain Ave. and Bridge Ave. Great Lakes Brewing Company (GLBC) will kick off the festival at 8:30am with its Great Beer Chase 5k race. After the race, GLBC welcomes everyone to the awards ceremony and post-race party at their brew pub.
Musical performances will take place throughout the day at the Market Square Park Stage. Merchants will line W. 25th St. offering food, goods and information from more than 40 Ohio City restaurants, shops and nonprofit organizations. The Key Bank KidsZone features family fun throughout the day with face painting, a balloon animal artist, inflatables, crafts from the Carnegie West Library and the Ohio City Farm, games and activities from Near West Recreation Center and musical instrument discovery with the Music Settlement.
Tabletop Board Game Café will host a game area with large-scale versions of favorite board games. Erie Social Shuffleboard, opening in Ohio City this fall, will join Tabletop with a full-sized shuffleboard court. Zygote Press will man a printing station where festival-goers can create their own Ohio City-themed linocut prints from a series of stamps created by area artists. Vision Yoga and Wellness will conduct a donation-based yoga class. Cleveland Public Theatre, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Creative Fusion Cohort will provide arts programming throughout the festival area.
With a portion of W. 25th Street. closed off to traffic, the street festival will have a beer garden pouring Ohio City-brewed beers from Great Lakes Brewing Company, Platform Beer Company and Market Garden Brewery.
How fast can you eat four bratwurst? Now is your chance to find out. The West Side Market’s Frank’s Bratwurst will host a bratwurst-eating contest at the Market Square Park Stage beginning at 12:15pm The contest rules are simple. Whoever finishes four bratwursts in the least amount of time will be named the winner. The victor will be announced directly after the contest and will receive a prize from Frank’s Bratwurst. Contest entry is free and open to all ages.
Later that same afternoon, at 2:10pm at the Market Square Park Stage, Mitchell’s Ice Cream will host an ice cream-eating contest. There will be two age categories. In the age 12 and under group, whoever consumes an eight-ounce cup of vanilla bean ice cream the fastest wins. In the 13-plus age category, the winner must eat an entire pint of ice cream in the least time. Winners will receive a delicious prize.
The West Side Market will be open during the street festival and vendors like Kate’s Fish, Narrin Asian Spice and Sauce, Sebastian’s Meats and Frank’s Bratwurst will be serving food outside on W. 25th St.
Other participating food vendors include Passengers Café at the Cleveland Hostel, Flying Fig, Touch Supper Club, Banana Blossom Thai Cuisine, Heck’s Café, Jukebox, Plum Café and Kitchen, the Grocery OHC, Momocho, Town Hall and Soho Kitchen and Bar. The Ohio City Farm Stand will be open and the farm team will be offering tours of the farm.
Join the folks from nearby Market Garden Brewery at their newly opened production facility for the official Ohio City Street Festival after party. The second annual Ohio City Street Festival is put on by Ohio City Incorporated, the community development corporation responsible for preserving, promoting and developing the Ohio City neighborhood. Tom McNair, executive director of Ohio City Incorporated noted, “We are very proud to put on an event that reflects who we are as a community, supports our businesses and shows Northeast Ohio all of the great things this neighborhood has to offer.”
The fun in Ohio City does not end on Sunday. Great Lakes Brewing Company has announced its first Neighborhood Appreciation Week, a weeklong celebration of the neighborhood GLBC has called home since 1988. Festivities begin with the Great Beer Chase 5k on Sun 9/25 and conclude with the 4th annual “Rock the Block” concert on Thu 9/29.
“We’ve hosted the Rock the Block event annually since 2013, and this will be the second year for the Great Beer Chase 5k,” Marissa DeSantis, GLBC public relations supervisor, explained. “But this is the first year we’ve surrounded those events with an extended week of activities.”
Mon 9/26 is Neighborhood and Service Industry Appreciation Day at GLBC. The brewery’s Ohio City neighbors and friends are invited to the brew pub for some “locals only” food and drink specials, as well as Ohio City Service karaoke with prizes. Be a Good Neighbor Day on Tue 9/27 includes a socks and underwear drive for the West Side Catholic Center. Donate to the cause for a chance to win GLBC prizes, including tickets to a Brewmaster’s Dinner and bottles of rare barrel-aged beer.
Explore the history, culture and architecture of Ohio City during a bike scavenger hunt on Wed 9/8. Ride solo or form a team and use clues to discover 20 Ohio City locations of historical and cultural significance. GLBC gift cards will be awarded to the top three teams or individuals. The Ohio City Bike Co-Op will offer $10 bike rentals for those who do not have their own wheels.
Neighborhood Appreciation Week ends with a bang at the Rock the Block party on Thu 9/29 with music beginning at 5:45pm. Headliners Saintseneca take the stage at 8:30pm. The GLBC beer garden, food trucks, photo booth and games will keep things hopping in the heart of Ohio City. Admission to Rock the Block is free and open to the public. Proceeds from Rock the Block benefit the Burning River Foundation.
[Written by Cynthia Schuster Eakin]
