Lifestyle and Special Interests
Festivals
Summertime is official festival time but events do happen all year. Here are our staff's picks for annual festivals and events that are so unique that every newcomer should experience them in their first few years in town. Most of them have no admission charge, are family friendly and a great way to explore your new hometown.
Summer
Blossom Time Festival - Features a hot air balloon glow, a parade, live bands, a pie-eating contest and carnival rides. This festival is a kick-off event for the summer. Held Memorial Day weekend along the banks of the Chagrin River.
Burning River Fest - Created by the founders of Great…
Fall
Chalk Festival - Held in September on the sidewalks around the Cleveland Museum of Art, participants buy a sidewalk square and a box of chalk with eight colors and begin drawing for fun or to compete in various categories. Enjoyed by toddlers barely old enough to hold chalk all the way to professional artists sharing their love of art.
Crocker Park Wine Festival - A weekend long festival featuring wine, beer, local food and music that benefits University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospitals.
IngenuityFest - A festival of art and technology held in a unique, super-cool, hidden venue every year, Ingenuity celebrates passionate and engaged people and whatever they are interested in presenting. More than 40,000 visitors make this an annual pilgrimage to experience edgy and interesting performances, demonstrations and installations while enjoying live music and festival food.
Designer Dress Days - A shopping extravaganza organized by the National Council of Jewish…
Winter
Brite Winter Festival - Held in Ohio City in the middle of winter, this music festival features cool acts you wouldn’t have ever known unless you attended this festival. It attracts 20,000 visitors to four outdoor and six indoor stages as Clevelanders fight off cabin fever in February.
WinterFest - On Saturday after Thanksgiving at Public Square, this festival kicks off the holidays for all ages with live music, a parade of carriages with lanterns, food vendors, spectacular fireworks and the official “flip the switch” moment to light up the city with Christmas lights.
Holiday CircleFest - Experience all of the cultural treasures in University Circle in one afternoon for free. It takes place on a Sunday in early December. More than a dozen institutions are open for a family festival including the Botanical Gardens, Natural History Museum, Art Museum, Western Reserve History Center and the Children’s Museum. Activities…
Spring
On the Sunday after March 15th the buzzards (aka turkey vultures) return to roost for the summer. The Metroparks celebrate this first sign of spring with a buzzard sighting festival and pancake breakfast which encourages everyone to shake off their winter hibernation and return to…
