Check out the festivals this weekend
Festivals are popping up all over the Cleveland area. The backyard is a cool place to be, but one of the best places to be during the summertime is at a festival. At a festival, time stops and you can live in the moment, savoring the food, the art, the music, the wine, and hanging out with the people. This weekend, and every weekend throughout the summer, festivals spill out into downtown parks, neighborhood hubs, and city streets.
One of Cleveland’s most colorful events, Parade the Circle [pictured below], livens up University Circle this weekend. On Sat 6/11, our cultural center will come alive with masked performers, stilt dancers, giant puppets, and colorful floats. Artists, musicians, community groups, and schools come together to provide food, entertainment, and activities in Circle Village. Far from mundane, those who march in the parade and exhibit their wares create energy and excitement in this large-scale community festival. Organizations all over the area are taking advantage of this annual celebration sponsored by the Cleveland Museum of Art, like the Cleveland Metroparks, which is marching in the parade as a moonlit forest at noon. The party amongst our cultural landmarks—the Art Museum, the Museum of Natural History, the City Greenhouse, or the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum—begins at 11 AM. Find more information on University Circle’s website.
The other big festival this weekend is the Italian American Summer Festival at Berea Fairgrounds [pictured above], which is open all weekend long, from Fri 6/10 5PM until Midnight, Sat 6/11 from 2PM until Midnight, and Sun 6/12 from noon until 9PM. Click on the website at http://ItalianAmericanSummerFestival.com and Italy comes alive with music and photos of people enjoying Italian food, visiting exhibit tents, and dancing. Looks like the music is mostly Italian, from Tony Ieluzzi to Pino Marelli, but there’s Evil Ways, a Santana tribute band, and Raisin Cain as well. You’ll be in Rome for the day with the pizza, pasta, sausage, pastries, and gelato (maybe not quite like Rome’s every corner gelato shops, but who can come close to that?). Are you getting hungry yet?
The Fine Arts Fair at Crocker Park will compete with the Farmers Market this weekend, but there’s plenty of parking spaces at what has become the western suburbs’ festival place. This 6th annual event takes place on Sat 6/11 from 10AM-8PM and Sun 6/12 from 11AM-6PM at Crocker Park, where more than 125 juried arts and craftsmen will display their art for sale. Main Street will be closed so the white tents can line the curbs.
Not exactly festivals, but festival-like, the Cleveland Metroparks is putting on two cool events this weekend. At Garfield Nature Center’s Let’s Fly a Kite!, participants can make a kite from recycled items found around the house and hike up a hill to fly them. Anyone over the age of 7 can take part in the event from 2-4PM on Sat 6/11. Wake up to Breakfast in the Park the following morning. Breakfast will be served from 9-10:30AM on Sun 6/12 at the Bonnie Park Picnic Area of Mill Stream Run Reservation. Those who go to this event bring along a food item and re-usable table settings, then hike through the Bonnie Park area while volunteers cook breakfast. Both events require registration by calling 216-341-3152. If you have a young family and not a lot of money, these are the events to attend, plus they’re all about the outdoors, the place to be in the summertime. http://CleMetParks.com.
Summertime in Cleveland… (I won’t repeat the beginning of that old Mungo Jerry song again) you can reach right up and touch the sky, and there’s a lot more going on than the grill and deck in your backyard. Get out to a festival this weekend!
Claudia Taller’s book Ohio’s Lake Erie Wineries will be released by Arcadia Publishing on June 20. Her passion for words has led to creation of Word Lover’s Retreats. Find her at http://ClaudiaTallerMusings.blogspot.com.
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