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Columbus Festival Season 2017

Apr 24, 2017 · 27 min

With the month of May quickly approaching, it’s time to start thinking about summer festivals. In this week’s episode, Columbus Underground co-founder and COO Anne Evans talks about what festivals are new this year, some of her favorites, and I interject my commentary on the end of Independents’ Day as we know it.

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Support for this episode of the Confluence Cast comes from the City of Upper Arlington, creating a diverse and accessible arts environment to enrich our community through visual and performing arts.

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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. We are a weekly Columbus-centric podcast focusing on the civics, lifestyle, entertainment, and people of our city. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. This week, I am declaring the official start to festival season in Columbus, Ohio. I sat down with Columbus Underground co-founder Anne Evans to talk about what festivals are new this year, some of her favorite festivals, what festivals are going away this year, and what's happening with Independence Day. A couple of quick housekeeping notes. Uh, this Wednesday, April 26th, I will be recording a live episode of the Confluence Cast at the Columbus Podcast Festival. I'll be interviewing local pizza provocateur Mikey Soboro from Mikey's Late Night Slice. Also, I wanted to point you to a past subject matter of the Confluence Cast, Robert Mason Company. They are closing their shop over the course of the coming weeks. I invite you to go and patronize them. Really, I just wanted to wish Robert and his team the best and wish them luck in their future endeavors. All right. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Also, the Confluence Cast is on Patreon. Find out how to support this podcast on our website, theconfluencecast.com, or at patreon.com/confluence. Support for this episode of the Confluence Cast comes from the city of Upper Arlington, creating a diverse and accessible arts environment to enrich our community through visual and performing arts. Visit uaoh.net/culturalarts to experience art in a new way. Enjoy the interview. Sitting down here with Anne Evans, co-founder and chief operating officer of the Evans Creative Group, best known for owning Columbus Underground. Anne, how are you? Good. Thanks, Tim. Thanks for having me on. Thanks for being here. We're putting our stake in the ground and saying that we are about to kick off the Columbus festival season. First up this season will be the inaugural Columbus Podcast Festival coming up April 26th and 27th at the Garden Theatre. Information about that is at columbuspodcastfestival.com. The Confluence Cast will be recording a live episode on Wednesday night with the creator, co-founder, I'll find out more about his title, but with Mikey Soboro from Mikey's Late Night Slice. So please do come and check that out. Anne, talk about you are sort of the matron saint of Columbus festivals, at least at Columbus Underground. You are the one in charge of organizing the calendar every year, one of the best read articles on Columbus Underground as we talked about back in December. What's... Sort of give me the, the landscape of festivals this year. What's new? What's going away? What's celebrating banner years? Yes, it is everyone's favorite time of year when the festival list comes out. I've already got several requests when this is happening, and thanks to the upcoming co-

Readers just email you and say like- They ask, "Where is it?" Yes. "You guys aren't doing your job over there." They're just very excited. It's a, it's a great day online.

Planning. Right. Well, it's like when any, like, music festival announces their lineup is great, but what's better is when they announce their schedule to know, like- True

... so you can plan, plan everything up until, what are we gonna call festival season? Up until the Pumpkin Fest? Yeah, usually I go until then. Although lately I have extended it just- Okay ... until December, which got a few people excited because they're like, "Yay, you're including my thing now."

Good. The... We try to be all-inclusive. Well, it's funny because you guys had launched the Columbus Mega Summer Weekend, like, post and then it, when it became its own e- weekly email that people got, and that was just dedicated to summertime, and now it's year-round given the breadth of events that are happening in Columbus. Right. I just did the weekend post as the summer, Mega Summer Weekend for a long time, and it usually started around the Columbus' first big summer weekend, like that second weekend in May. Mm-hmm. And it went through the Pumpkin Show, basically.

Got it. And then I had a lot of requests. Whenever it would end, people were like, "Oh, why is this ending? There's so many fun things to do in Columbus. This is a great snapshot of everything in the weekend." What's happening. And it's great and fun sometimes to look back on things like that and see what happened and what doesn't happen anymore, what used to, things like that. So then I did start doing the weekend post all the time.

Right. And- I actually like it because it's good. You're able to sort of scan it. You know, here's, here's the highlighted things that are happening, but it's also written in a narrative format, so it's not just another gosh darn list that people have up. While the festival post is, you know, a list because that's the easiest way to consume it for people that are looking for upcoming things, there's my kudos to you for taking the time to write it out into a narrative format. Thanks.

You're welcome. Uh, what are, in addition to the Columbus Podcast Festival, which I only continue to mention because, one, full disclosure, I'm a, a, a founding organizer, quote unquote, which really just means I built their website. In addition to that, what are the upcoming, uh, new festivals this year? This year we have a couple of traveling food festivals making a stop in Columbus. You can try tater tots and beer, and then at a different time you can try chicken and beer. Delicious Yeah

Now what Columbus doesn't tend to like outsiders very much, at least from the, the organizing community. Do we know anything ab- about the organizations bringing these festivals to town? No, not really Okay. It's just, this is what they do. They tour festivals- Yeah

... around. It's funny 'cause we're actually, this is the 25th year since Ameriflora came to town. True Which is in most people's, not in my mind, but in most people's mind viewed as, um, sort of a debacle for the city. Is that fair to say? I think people have that sentiment a little, yeah

For those that are not aware, Ameriflora was a festival that was organized by outsiders, but was pitched to the city of Columbus as, "Hey, this is a festival that we're going to do." It was supposed to be like the Olympics, uh, it was gon- they wanted it to be like the next World's Fair. Mm. Like, they wanted it to be this, you know, here are botany related exhibits, here are technology related exhibits. My only cursory connection to Ameriflora was that my father was a presenter there at Ameriflora presenting new technology he had developed for Huntington Bank at the time. Oh, cool.

Can we go into this story? 'Cause we got, we're just talking about festivals. Sure I think it's, 'cause I think- Love to hear it

... I want people to know that my father invented what at the time was called the smartphone. Wow. We all now have smartphones, but this phone was a, this was before mobile phones were prevalent. You could buy one, but it would be like a Zack Morris huge thing, or there were even some people that had suitcase mobile phones that they had to carry around. But this phone was, it was a landline phone, it would go into your wall, but it had a touch screen that you were able to do your personal and business banking on. Remember, this is also before the internet 25 years ago, so this thing didn't exist. As I tell that story, I always end it with, "And then the internet happened." And so while that patent is still in my father's name owned by Huntington Bank, there is not a whole lot of use for it anymore. Aw.

And that's my story about Ameriflora. I think Ameriflora did kick off the importance of the Franklin Park Conservatory- Oh, absolutely ... and see how much growth that's having. They started their children's garden.

What's that? It is a new area that's going to have a lot of experiences for kids. I think it might have like a climbing bridge type thing to do. It's on the- It's like a playground- Mm-hmm

... plus like, I wanna call it like outside COSI. Oh, yeah Where it's like nat- it's nature COSI with a bridge. Right.

That's great. We'll check it out. Yeah Your kids are still young enough to enjoy stuff like that. Oh, yeah.

Okay And we, I just re-up my membership to the Park Conservatory this year. Okay And I really like going to it. It's in our neighborhood and-

It's beautiful ... it's a fun place and gets rid of those winter blues. Mm-hmm. 'Cause it is still a beautiful space to, even the outside is a beautiful space to even go to in the winter. But yeah, going and seeing, seeing tropical plants, uh, in the wintertime is, is pleasant as well. Anything else that's new this year? There is the Steadfast Festival, which is coming up in May 6, and it is going to be a musical experience.

Okay. What does that mean? It's just how they're billing it. Okay It's a little different from just like, I guess, standing around listening to music. It's more immersive.

Okay. Where's that occurring? Um, it's at the Veritas Church. Okay. So Veritas Church, right sort of around the area of 2nd and North 4th Street, sort of tucked back if you go back towards the Milo Grogan district. It's back there. I should note, this episode is coming out at the same time that the festival list is coming out on the columbusunderground.com. So we will link to that in the show notes. You can find more information on all the festivals that we discussed today. Let's talk about food fests. Oh, I have one more new one-

Oh ... that popped up. Excuse me. It's the Midwest Burlesque and Rockabilly Weekend, and that's going to be June 1st through 4th.

And where's that one taking place? It's gonna be over several different venues, like the Shrunken Head, King Avenue 5, and they're having a pinup tea party and pageant the last day at Mrs. Turbo's Cookies in Gahanna. Mrs. Turbo's Cookies, the place I think of when I think of burlesque. Her cookies are delicious.

Awesome. Good to know. Linking them in the show notes. Um, let's talk about food fests. And the things that come to mind for me, uh, the Reynoldsburg Tomato Festival, the Honey Festival, the Pumpkin Festival, 'cause these tend to be smaller community festivals that sort of, they're like, "We should have a community festival. Let's align ourselves with a food that is historically significant to our community or is fun." Right. So those are all throughout Ohio. There's the Zucchini Fest in Obetz, the Popcorn Festival in Marion, which I think is the largest in the world- The- ... or so they say.

Excuse me. L- I just wanna be clear. The largest popcorn festival or the largest food specific festival? The, the- The largest popcorn festival Got it. Well, that's something to hang our hat on a little bit I suppose. There's also potato festivals, sauerkraut, um, fish and shrimp, the Paw Paw Festival.

Where's the Fish and Shrimp Festival? The Fish and Shrimp Festival happens in Urbana. Good to know. So you're a big fan of the Pumpkin Fest, I know. I certainly am.

Okay. It's my favorite festival every year. And in the early days, Walker and I would go down and hang out or whatever, and it would be kinda crowded, and I'd leave and be like, "Yeah, I've had my fill. I don't really need to go back." And then, you know, July comes around or whatever, I'm like, "Mm, I really want that pumpkin burger, and I really wanna go get the pumpkin blossoms and check out all the pumpkin art that the kids made." You look forward to it for months at a- I love it

... months at a time. We have gone every year with our kids. Uh-huh. We get our photo taken in front of the pumpkin tree.

Okay So it's like our little family thing to do. We haven't checked that out yet It's pretty amazing

I cer- I think Piper is gonna get her first trip to the Pumpkin Festival this year. It's pretty cool. It's free. Uh-huh. So you can go for free, and then you pay for the rides and the food and all that, and you can ex- I just love going, and everyone in the city celebrates it.

Mm-hmm. So- I mean, they cancel school. Probably. They-

They do. Oh. Oh, they do. They- They, all the kids do artwork.

Okay. So it's fun to go check that out because it's just everyone has their pumpkin class theme of artwork that they do. The pre-K has a cute little just draw a pumpkin or whatever. Right. And then the older grades do, um, more elaborate art projects, but then there's the decorate pumpkins.

Uh-huh. Sometimes those are political. There was a funny Trump one- I was gonna ask ... last year.

Yeah. Yeah. It's just a really fun time. Are there other ones that you check out, like food festivals? Um, around the state, not necessarily. There are a lot that happen, and they all really kinda happen in, like, August, September, October, when all the-

Harvest time ... food, food is ripe. Right. Um, so not particularly. We have checked out the Washboard Festival. That one's kinda fun.

Oh, and so where is the Washboard Festival? It's in Logan, Ohio. Mm-hmm. And they are celebrating their 200th birthday, not necessarily the Washboard Festival, but of the city. So they're going to ha- be having a lot of special events going on, and it's probably gonna be a big year, big Father's Day weekend at the Washboard Music Festival.

Well, happy birthday, Logan, Ohio. You had mentioned earlier the Ohio VegFest, which I imagine, I would hope, is some sort of culmination of the other festivals. What is the Ohio VegFest? Yeah, the Ohio VegFest is coming this year. It's in September, on September 17th, and it's in Goodale Park, and they are going to be showcasing everything plant-based food. Okay. Products, businesses, community groups. If it's about vegetarian, it's gonna be there.

Okay, so VegFest is sort of vegetarian, uh, specific. And veggie, yeah, plants. Plants. So in addition to the Ohio VegFest and the various food festivals around town, there are, of course, farmers markets that can be checked out all year long. There is a post on Columbus Underground with all the farmers markets. It is updated. If, in fact, you are listening and you are putting on a farmers market, please email Columbus Underground and let them know about it if they don't have the correct information there for you. Let's talk about some changes that are happening. Drama, the, what I think of as the little sister to Trauma, the alternative lifestyle festival and expo, is not actually happening this year. Normally, it happens in the spring. Right. Unfortunately, they have stated that they are taking a break but hope to return next year.

Okay. And as far as we know, Trauma is still happening in October, at least we hope it is. Sort of the elephant in the room is that Independence Day has publicly stated that this is the last year that it is occurring. For the unfamiliar, it should be noted this is Independence NTS, as in a group of independent people day, normally occurring in September of every year, this year falling on- September 16th and 17th. And again in Franklinton this year. They have stated that the, the festival will not occur in a, uh, in the same format that it, it has occurred in the past. It will be... I think it, I hope that they continue something along those lines. I think that a lot of us who are external to that large and dedicated group of people that organize the festival every year, we're all sort of in the dark about what is happening, what is going to happen. But I hope that from the self-inflicted ashes, uh, a phoenix rises, or multiple phoenixes, of other things happening around Columbus. They certainly, uh, from, you know, very public information, you can go back and listen to our episode on Independence Day from September of last year. They have a budget. They have money. This is not for lack of success that it's happening. It seems externally that, you know, the core group of people that are dedicated to the organization have said, "It's time for us to move on." And, you know, this is my plug for just hoping that they get their ducks in a row and keep it going. Right.

Or keep something along the lines going because it really is something that Columbus is proud of. It was something that was really special. I think the past year, I really enjoyed some of the public art installations. I really liked the- Like the environmental installations they did? Yeah, I really liked the Sunny Meadows Flower Farms floral display-

Mm-hmm. Okay ... under the train bridges. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought that was just-

The hanging flowers. Yeah, I loved that. Yeah. That was just so cool and something really neat to just kinda stumble upon. The immersive experience that, um, was created inside of the Strong Water event space with all the plants.

Mm-hmm. I think Michael Kreith did that. That was really cool. There's just some really cool things happening, and it's a bummer to see that it's not gonna happen on a large scale anymore. Mm-hmm. But hopefully those intimate types of experiences are going to continue.

Absolutely, and I think it's great. I think that that's, it's great that that's happening. I guess I worry that- When you sort of disband a festival like that, the funding goes away. Mm. Because, you know, they have some money in the bank certainly, or excuse me, I assume they have some money in the bank that they're able to fund immersive experiences like that. But those experiences on their own aren't gonna generate revenue, and that's fine, but the problem is, is you can't keep that cycle going, and I just, I worry about that a little bit. Not a festival, but it's important to note something very big is going to happen on June 7th in Columbus. Anne, I'm gonna let you tell us, what is it? Well, you can spend that whole weekend camping out at the IKEA if you want.

Ladies and gentlemen, Columbus' IKEA is finally opening June 7th. According to them, you can start camping out, I do not know why you would want to, you can start camping out on June 5th. Mm-hmm. Set up your lawn chair. Take some music, take some food. You got a festival atmosphere.

Indeed. Music, food. Wait, are they... They're not setting up, like, stages and stuff, are they? Oh, I don't think so. Okay. I was just saying, like, take your own stuff.

Make your own festival, people. It's like camping at IKEA. As Columbus continues to frankly be under construction, the bridges over the Scioto are completed. There are a couple of festivals happening physically on the bridges this year in addition to the arts festival, but I think a couple of, uh, music events as well. Some that are announced, some that I think are still being announced, if I remember correctly. Anything else that's happening on the riverfront this year, Anne? It's a big year for Pride. They're moving back to the riverfront. Okay. They-

So not Goodale Park anymore? No. They were historically at the riverfront. That's right. I forgot that. So now they're reversing their parade route, and it's going to end there, and that's where the big festival's gonna happen.

Okay. The Columbus Food Truck Festival is also moving to the Scioto Mile and Bicentennial Park. From the Commons. Right.

Okay. And they have a huge music lineup. They've been dropping little hints about it all week, so pretty exciting stuff there. Great. And then I think you just have most of your usual stuff. Arts Festival's gonna be happening throughout there.

Mm-hmm. Um, they always have the movies and the things happening at the Bicentennial Park. Great. Let's wrap it up with, Anne, what other than the Pumpkin Festival, what are your other favorite festivals? I always kind of enjoy Zombie Walk.

Okay. I think that's always pretty cool. I mean, I don't know. Kinda always just wanted to, like, kind of know where it's happening and kinda just casually take my kids around that area. Little kids, monsters. But it's kind of family-friendly. They don't do, like, crazy, outrageous stuff. I mean, it's obviously zombie makeup.

Mm-hmm. But there's kids in it. So that's always kinda cool, just to have this thing, like, pop up and happening- Mm-hmm ... in your city. The International Festival is really huge.

Uh-huh. It draws people from all around the state, possibly more, and it celebrates all kinds of cultures. That's a pretty big event that happens, um- Where is that now that it's not at Vets Memorial? It's at the fairgrounds.

Okay. The, the state fairgrounds. Got it. Yes. The Breakaway Festival is moving back to Mapfre Stadium, so that's pretty big for them. They were at the Expo Center, and they actually did go away for a little bit.

Mm-hmm. And now they've come back, and they're moving back to the Mapfre Stadium. That's pretty big. It's the 25th year for the New Albany Classic, the 30th year for the Dublin Irish Festival. Okay. And Schuller Park turns 150 this year.

What? Yes. God bless Schuller Park. Yeah. They've had some art exhibits going on about it.

Mm-hmm. I'm not sure if there'll be more to say about that closer to the House and Garden Tour- Okay ... in German Village.

And we do, just a little preview, we do have an interview coming up with the executive director of Actors Theatre coming up on The Confluence Cast in June, I believe. They have their Shakespeare in the Park series every year. Also, the King Arts Complex celebrates their annual gala. It's turning 30 this year. Okay. And for the first time, it is not going to be at the King Arts Complex.

Oh. It's going to be at the Hilton downtown. Very nice. Hopefully that's a good move for them. Yeah, hopefully. The Coffee Fest will be returning September 30th and October 1st. They're adding some new experiences this year.

Okay. And bringing a lot of new coffees from around Columbus and the state, and it's going to be at Ohio Village. This is the coffee festival that you guys produce, right? It is.

Okay. So there's a little plug there. Little plug. It's a really fun event. It sold out really quickly last year, so we're making it bigger and having some new things you can do. Also returning is the Columbus Open Studio and Stage that was put on by the Greater Columbus Arts Council. Mm-hmm. The first year was last year. It was successful. People really enjoy getting to go into artists' studios, chat with the artists, see where they create their art-

Mm-hmm ... where they draw inspiration, and it's a fun thing. So that's coming back. And not particularly a festival, but another big event that's coming back is The Big Table by The Columbus Foundation- Mm-hmm ... on May 17th. If you want to join others in the community and talk about things you wanna see changed, things you like, just discussions you wanna have-

Mm-hmm ... you can find a Big Table conversation and join in. And we will certainly, again, have links to all of these festivals and, and non-festival related things that we've discussed today in the show notes for this episode. I wanna wrap things up just by encouraging people to take advantage of this festival season and get out there and be a part of your community in Columbus, your smaller communities, your neighborhoods, your, you know, the suburbs, the independence NCE festivals that are happening, and just be a part of your community. This is the, the time of year for that. So. Right. You will have around 300 chances to get out and go to a festival this year all the way through to the end of the year. One more thing that's cool that's going to be coming back-

Mm-hmm ... is the Ohio Chinese Festival taking place at the Natural Resources Park at the Ohio Expo Center- Okay ... and Fairgrounds. That was really amazing if you didn't get a chance to see that.

This is the touring festival- Yes ... of the, the Lantern Festival, basically. Yes.

Got it. Got it. It was really cool, and it's coming back, so put it on your calendar for November. Kind of not the festival season. But here's your early warning. It's coming back. Anne, thank you so much for your time and, uh, we'll see you at the festivals. Thanks.

Thank you for listening to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. Again, you can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Please rate, subscribe, share this episode of the Confluence Cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your favorite festival-goer. If you're interested in sponsoring the Confluence Cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info@theconfluencecast.com. Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. Have a great week.

Transcript4,376 words

Tim Fulton Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. We are a weekly Columbus-centric podcast focusing on the civics, lifestyle, entertainment, and people of our city. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. This week, I am declaring the official start to festival season in Columbus, Ohio. I sat down with Columbus Underground co-founder Anne Evans to talk about what festivals are new this year, some of her favorite festivals, what festivals are going away this year, and what's happening with Independence Day. A couple of quick housekeeping notes. Uh, this Wednesday, April 26th, I will be recording a live episode of the Confluence Cast at the Columbus Podcast Festival. I'll be interviewing local pizza provocateur Mikey Soboro from Mikey's Late Night Slice. Also, I wanted to point you to a past subject matter of the Confluence Cast, Robert Mason Company. They are closing their shop over the course of the coming weeks. I invite you to go and patronize them. Really, I just wanted to wish Robert and his team the best and wish them luck in their future endeavors. All right. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Also, the Confluence Cast is on Patreon. Find out how to support this podcast on our website, theconfluencecast.com, or at patreon.com/confluence. Support for this episode of the Confluence Cast comes from the city of Upper Arlington, creating a diverse and accessible arts environment to enrich our community through visual and performing arts. Visit uaoh.net/culturalarts to experience art in a new way. Enjoy the interview. Sitting down here with Anne Evans, co-founder and chief operating officer of the Evans Creative Group, best known for owning Columbus Underground. Anne, how are you?

Anne Evans Good. Thanks, Tim. Thanks for having me on.

Tim Fulton Thanks for being here. We're putting our stake in the ground and saying that we are about to kick off the Columbus festival season. First up this season will be the inaugural Columbus Podcast Festival coming up April 26th and 27th at the Garden Theatre. Information about that is at columbuspodcastfestival.com. The Confluence Cast will be recording a live episode on Wednesday night with the creator, co-founder, I'll find out more about his title, but with Mikey Soboro from Mikey's Late Night Slice. So please do come and check that out. Anne, talk about you are sort of the matron saint of Columbus festivals, at least at Columbus Underground. You are the one in charge of organizing the calendar every year, one of the best read articles on Columbus Underground as we talked about back in December. What's... Sort of give me the, the landscape of festivals this year. What's new? What's going away? What's celebrating banner years?

Anne Evans Yes, it is everyone's favorite time of year when the festival list comes out. I've already got several requests when this is happening, and thanks to the upcoming co-

Tim Fulton Readers just email you and say like-

Anne Evans They ask, "Where is it?" Yes.

Tim Fulton "You guys aren't doing your job over there."

Anne Evans They're just very excited. It's a, it's a great day online.

Tim Fulton Planning.

Anne Evans Right.

Tim Fulton Well, it's like when any, like, music festival announces their lineup is great, but what's better is when they announce their schedule to know, like-

Anne Evans True

Tim Fulton ... so you can plan, plan everything up until, what are we gonna call festival season? Up until the Pumpkin Fest?

Anne Evans Yeah, usually I go until then. Although lately I have extended it just-

Tim Fulton Okay

Anne Evans ... until December, which got a few people excited because they're like, "Yay, you're including my thing now."

Tim Fulton Good. The... We try to be all-inclusive. Well, it's funny because you guys had launched the Columbus Mega Summer Weekend, like, post and then it, when it became its own e- weekly email that people got, and that was just dedicated to summertime, and now it's year-round given the breadth of events that are happening in Columbus.

Anne Evans Right. I just did the weekend post as the summer, Mega Summer Weekend for a long time, and it usually started around the Columbus' first big summer weekend, like that second weekend in May.

Tim Fulton Mm-hmm.

Anne Evans And it went through the Pumpkin Show, basically.

Tim Fulton Got it.

Anne Evans And then I had a lot of requests. Whenever it would end, people were like, "Oh, why is this ending? There's so many fun things to do in Columbus. This is a great snapshot of everything in the weekend."

Tim Fulton What's happening.

Anne Evans And it's great and fun sometimes to look back on things like that and see what happened and what doesn't happen anymore, what used to, things like that. So then I did start doing the weekend post all the time.

Tim Fulton Right.

Anne Evans And-

Tim Fulton I actually like it because it's good. You're able to sort of scan it. You know, here's, here's the highlighted things that are happening, but it's also written in a narrative format, so it's not just another gosh darn list that people have up. While the festival post is, you know, a list because that's the easiest way to consume it for people that are looking for upcoming things, there's my kudos to you for taking the time to write it out into a narrative format.

Anne Evans Thanks.

Tim Fulton You're welcome. Uh, what are, in addition to the Columbus Podcast Festival, which I only continue to mention because, one, full disclosure, I'm a, a, a founding organizer, quote unquote, which really just means I built their website. In addition to that, what are the upcoming, uh, new festivals this year?

Anne Evans This year we have a couple of traveling food festivals making a stop in Columbus. You can try tater tots and beer, and then at a different time you can try chicken and beer.

Tim Fulton Delicious

Anne Evans Yeah

Tim Fulton Now what Columbus doesn't tend to like outsiders very much, at least from the, the organizing community. Do we know anything ab- about the organizations bringing these festivals to town?

Anne Evans No, not really

Tim Fulton Okay. It's just, this is what they do. They tour festivals-

Anne Evans Yeah

Tim Fulton ... around. It's funny 'cause we're actually, this is the 25th year since Ameriflora came to town.

Anne Evans True

Tim Fulton Which is in most people's, not in my mind, but in most people's mind viewed as, um, sort of a debacle for the city. Is that fair to say?

Anne Evans I think people have that sentiment a little, yeah

Tim Fulton For those that are not aware, Ameriflora was a festival that was organized by outsiders, but was pitched to the city of Columbus as, "Hey, this is a festival that we're going to do." It was supposed to be like the Olympics, uh, it was gon- they wanted it to be like the next World's Fair.

Anne Evans Mm.

Tim Fulton Like, they wanted it to be this, you know, here are botany related exhibits, here are technology related exhibits. My only cursory connection to Ameriflora was that my father was a presenter there at Ameriflora presenting new technology he had developed for Huntington Bank at the time.

Anne Evans Oh, cool.

Tim Fulton Can we go into this story? 'Cause we got, we're just talking about festivals.

Anne Evans Sure

Tim Fulton I think it's, 'cause I think-

Anne Evans Love to hear it

Tim Fulton ... I want people to know that my father invented what at the time was called the smartphone.

Anne Evans Wow.

Tim Fulton We all now have smartphones, but this phone was a, this was before mobile phones were prevalent. You could buy one, but it would be like a Zack Morris huge thing, or there were even some people that had suitcase mobile phones that they had to carry around. But this phone was, it was a landline phone, it would go into your wall, but it had a touch screen that you were able to do your personal and business banking on. Remember, this is also before the internet 25 years ago, so this thing didn't exist. As I tell that story, I always end it with, "And then the internet happened." And so while that patent is still in my father's name owned by Huntington Bank, there is not a whole lot of use for it anymore.

Anne Evans Aw.

Tim Fulton And that's my story about Ameriflora.

Anne Evans I think Ameriflora did kick off the importance of the Franklin Park Conservatory-

Tim Fulton Oh, absolutely

Anne Evans ... and see how much growth that's having. They started their children's garden.

Tim Fulton What's that?

Anne Evans It is a new area that's going to have a lot of experiences for kids. I think it might have like a climbing bridge type thing to do. It's on the-

Tim Fulton It's like a playground-

Anne Evans Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton ... plus like, I wanna call it like outside COSI.

Anne Evans Oh, yeah

Tim Fulton Where it's like nat- it's nature COSI with a bridge.

Anne Evans Right.

Tim Fulton That's great. We'll check it out.

Anne Evans Yeah

Tim Fulton Your kids are still young enough to enjoy stuff like that.

Anne Evans Oh, yeah.

Tim Fulton Okay

Anne Evans And we, I just re-up my membership to the Park Conservatory this year.

Tim Fulton Okay

Anne Evans And I really like going to it. It's in our neighborhood and-

Tim Fulton It's beautiful

Anne Evans ... it's a fun place and gets rid of those winter blues.

Tim Fulton Mm-hmm. 'Cause it is still a beautiful space to, even the outside is a beautiful space to even go to in the winter. But yeah, going and seeing, seeing tropical plants, uh, in the wintertime is, is pleasant as well. Anything else that's new this year?

Anne Evans There is the Steadfast Festival, which is coming up in May 6, and it is going to be a musical experience.

Tim Fulton Okay. What does that mean?

Anne Evans It's just how they're billing it.

Tim Fulton Okay

Anne Evans It's a little different from just like, I guess, standing around listening to music. It's more immersive.

Tim Fulton Okay. Where's that occurring?

Anne Evans Um, it's at the Veritas Church.

Tim Fulton Okay. So Veritas Church, right sort of around the area of 2nd and North 4th Street, sort of tucked back if you go back towards the Milo Grogan district. It's back there. I should note, this episode is coming out at the same time that the festival list is coming out on the columbusunderground.com. So we will link to that in the show notes. You can find more information on all the festivals that we discussed today. Let's talk about food fests.

Anne Evans Oh, I have one more new one-

Tim Fulton Oh

Anne Evans ... that popped up.

Tim Fulton Excuse me.

Anne Evans It's the Midwest Burlesque and Rockabilly Weekend, and that's going to be June 1st through 4th.

Tim Fulton And where's that one taking place?

Anne Evans It's gonna be over several different venues, like the Shrunken Head, King Avenue 5, and they're having a pinup tea party and pageant the last day at Mrs. Turbo's Cookies in Gahanna.

Tim Fulton Mrs. Turbo's Cookies, the place I think of when I think of burlesque.

Anne Evans Her cookies are delicious.

Tim Fulton Awesome. Good to know. Linking them in the show notes. Um, let's talk about food fests. And the things that come to mind for me, uh, the Reynoldsburg Tomato Festival, the Honey Festival, the Pumpkin Festival, 'cause these tend to be smaller community festivals that sort of, they're like, "We should have a community festival. Let's align ourselves with a food that is historically significant to our community or is fun."

Anne Evans Right. So those are all throughout Ohio. There's the Zucchini Fest in Obetz, the Popcorn Festival in Marion, which I think is the largest in the world-

Tim Fulton The-

Anne Evans ... or so they say.

Tim Fulton Excuse me. L- I just wanna be clear. The largest popcorn festival or the largest food specific festival? The, the-

Anne Evans The largest popcorn festival

Tim Fulton Got it. Well, that's something to hang our hat on a little bit I suppose.

Anne Evans There's also potato festivals, sauerkraut, um, fish and shrimp, the Paw Paw Festival.

Tim Fulton Where's the Fish and Shrimp Festival?

Anne Evans The Fish and Shrimp Festival happens in Urbana.

Tim Fulton Good to know. So you're a big fan of the Pumpkin Fest, I know.

Anne Evans I certainly am.

Tim Fulton Okay.

Anne Evans It's my favorite festival every year. And in the early days, Walker and I would go down and hang out or whatever, and it would be kinda crowded, and I'd leave and be like, "Yeah, I've had my fill. I don't really need to go back." And then, you know, July comes around or whatever, I'm like, "Mm, I really want that pumpkin burger, and I really wanna go get the pumpkin blossoms and check out all the pumpkin art that the kids made."

Tim Fulton You look forward to it for months at a-

Anne Evans I love it

Tim Fulton ... months at a time.

Anne Evans We have gone every year with our kids.

Tim Fulton Uh-huh.

Anne Evans We get our photo taken in front of the pumpkin tree.

Tim Fulton Okay

Anne Evans So it's like our little family thing to do.

Tim Fulton We haven't checked that out yet

Anne Evans It's pretty amazing

Tim Fulton I cer- I think Piper is gonna get her first trip to the Pumpkin Festival this year.

Anne Evans It's pretty cool. It's free.

Tim Fulton Uh-huh.

Anne Evans So you can go for free, and then you pay for the rides and the food and all that, and you can ex- I just love going, and everyone in the city celebrates it.

Tim Fulton Mm-hmm.

Anne Evans So-

Tim Fulton I mean, they cancel school.

Anne Evans Probably. They-

Tim Fulton They do.

Anne Evans Oh.

Tim Fulton Oh, they do. They-

Anne Evans They, all the kids do artwork.

Tim Fulton Okay.

Anne Evans So it's fun to go check that out because it's just everyone has their pumpkin class theme of artwork that they do. The pre-K has a cute little just draw a pumpkin or whatever.

Tim Fulton Right.

Anne Evans And then the older grades do, um, more elaborate art projects, but then there's the decorate pumpkins.

Tim Fulton Uh-huh.

Anne Evans Sometimes those are political. There was a funny Trump one-

Tim Fulton I was gonna ask

Anne Evans ... last year.

Tim Fulton Yeah.

Anne Evans Yeah. It's just a really fun time.

Tim Fulton Are there other ones that you check out, like food festivals?

Anne Evans Um, around the state, not necessarily. There are a lot that happen, and they all really kinda happen in, like, August, September, October, when all the-

Tim Fulton Harvest time

Anne Evans ... food, food is ripe.

Tim Fulton Right.

Anne Evans Um, so not particularly. We have checked out the Washboard Festival. That one's kinda fun.

Tim Fulton Oh, and so where is the Washboard Festival?

Anne Evans It's in Logan, Ohio.

Tim Fulton Mm-hmm.

Anne Evans And they are celebrating their 200th birthday, not necessarily the Washboard Festival, but of the city. So they're going to ha- be having a lot of special events going on, and it's probably gonna be a big year, big Father's Day weekend at the Washboard Music Festival.

Tim Fulton Well, happy birthday, Logan, Ohio. You had mentioned earlier the Ohio VegFest, which I imagine, I would hope, is some sort of culmination of the other festivals. What is the Ohio VegFest?

Anne Evans Yeah, the Ohio VegFest is coming this year. It's in September, on September 17th, and it's in Goodale Park, and they are going to be showcasing everything plant-based food.

Tim Fulton Okay.

Anne Evans Products, businesses, community groups. If it's about vegetarian, it's gonna be there.

Tim Fulton Okay, so VegFest is sort of vegetarian, uh, specific.

Anne Evans And veggie, yeah, plants.

Tim Fulton Plants. So in addition to the Ohio VegFest and the various food festivals around town, there are, of course, farmers markets that can be checked out all year long. There is a post on Columbus Underground with all the farmers markets. It is updated. If, in fact, you are listening and you are putting on a farmers market, please email Columbus Underground and let them know about it if they don't have the correct information there for you. Let's talk about some changes that are happening. Drama, the, what I think of as the little sister to Trauma, the alternative lifestyle festival and expo, is not actually happening this year. Normally, it happens in the spring.

Anne Evans Right. Unfortunately, they have stated that they are taking a break but hope to return next year.

Tim Fulton Okay. And as far as we know, Trauma is still happening in October, at least we hope it is. Sort of the elephant in the room is that Independence Day has publicly stated that this is the last year that it is occurring. For the unfamiliar, it should be noted this is Independence NTS, as in a group of independent people day, normally occurring in September of every year, this year falling on-

Anne Evans September 16th and 17th.

Tim Fulton And again in Franklinton this year. They have stated that the, the festival will not occur in a, uh, in the same format that it, it has occurred in the past. It will be... I think it, I hope that they continue something along those lines. I think that a lot of us who are external to that large and dedicated group of people that organize the festival every year, we're all sort of in the dark about what is happening, what is going to happen. But I hope that from the self-inflicted ashes, uh, a phoenix rises, or multiple phoenixes, of other things happening around Columbus. They certainly, uh, from, you know, very public information, you can go back and listen to our episode on Independence Day from September of last year. They have a budget. They have money. This is not for lack of success that it's happening. It seems externally that, you know, the core group of people that are dedicated to the organization have said, "It's time for us to move on." And, you know, this is my plug for just hoping that they get their ducks in a row and keep it going.

Anne Evans Right.

Tim Fulton Or keep something along the lines going because it really is something that Columbus is proud of.

Anne Evans It was something that was really special. I think the past year, I really enjoyed some of the public art installations. I really liked the-

Tim Fulton Like the environmental installations they did?

Anne Evans Yeah, I really liked the Sunny Meadows Flower Farms floral display-

Tim Fulton Mm-hmm. Okay

Anne Evans ... under the train bridges.

Tim Fulton Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Anne Evans I thought that was just-

Tim Fulton The hanging flowers.

Anne Evans Yeah, I loved that.

Tim Fulton Yeah.

Anne Evans That was just so cool and something really neat to just kinda stumble upon. The immersive experience that, um, was created inside of the Strong Water event space with all the plants.

Tim Fulton Mm-hmm.

Anne Evans I think Michael Kreith did that. That was really cool. There's just some really cool things happening, and it's a bummer to see that it's not gonna happen on a large scale anymore.

Tim Fulton Mm-hmm.

Anne Evans But hopefully those intimate types of experiences are going to continue.

Tim Fulton Absolutely, and I think it's great. I think that that's, it's great that that's happening. I guess I worry that- When you sort of disband a festival like that, the funding goes away.

Anne Evans Mm.

Tim Fulton Because, you know, they have some money in the bank certainly, or excuse me, I assume they have some money in the bank that they're able to fund immersive experiences like that. But those experiences on their own aren't gonna generate revenue, and that's fine, but the problem is, is you can't keep that cycle going, and I just, I worry about that a little bit. Not a festival, but it's important to note something very big is going to happen on June 7th in Columbus. Anne, I'm gonna let you tell us, what is it?

Anne Evans Well, you can spend that whole weekend camping out at the IKEA if you want.

Tim Fulton Ladies and gentlemen, Columbus' IKEA is finally opening June 7th. According to them, you can start camping out, I do not know why you would want to, you can start camping out on June 5th.

Anne Evans Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton Set up your lawn chair.

Anne Evans Take some music, take some food. You got a festival atmosphere.

Tim Fulton Indeed. Music, food. Wait, are they... They're not setting up, like, stages and stuff, are they?

Anne Evans Oh, I don't think so.

Tim Fulton Okay.

Anne Evans I was just saying, like, take your own stuff.

Tim Fulton Make your own festival, people. It's like camping at IKEA. As Columbus continues to frankly be under construction, the bridges over the Scioto are completed. There are a couple of festivals happening physically on the bridges this year in addition to the arts festival, but I think a couple of, uh, music events as well. Some that are announced, some that I think are still being announced, if I remember correctly. Anything else that's happening on the riverfront this year, Anne?

Anne Evans It's a big year for Pride. They're moving back to the riverfront.

Tim Fulton Okay.

Anne Evans They-

Tim Fulton So not Goodale Park anymore?

Anne Evans No. They were historically at the riverfront.

Tim Fulton That's right. I forgot that.

Anne Evans So now they're reversing their parade route, and it's going to end there, and that's where the big festival's gonna happen.

Tim Fulton Okay.

Anne Evans The Columbus Food Truck Festival is also moving to the Scioto Mile and Bicentennial Park.

Tim Fulton From the Commons.

Anne Evans Right.

Tim Fulton Okay.

Anne Evans And they have a huge music lineup. They've been dropping little hints about it all week, so pretty exciting stuff there.

Tim Fulton Great.

Anne Evans And then I think you just have most of your usual stuff. Arts Festival's gonna be happening throughout there.

Tim Fulton Mm-hmm.

Anne Evans Um, they always have the movies and the things happening at the Bicentennial Park.

Tim Fulton Great. Let's wrap it up with, Anne, what other than the Pumpkin Festival, what are your other favorite festivals?

Anne Evans I always kind of enjoy Zombie Walk.

Tim Fulton Okay.

Anne Evans I think that's always pretty cool. I mean, I don't know. Kinda always just wanted to, like, kind of know where it's happening and kinda just casually take my kids around that area.

Tim Fulton Little kids, monsters.

Anne Evans But it's kind of family-friendly. They don't do, like, crazy, outrageous stuff. I mean, it's obviously zombie makeup.

Tim Fulton Mm-hmm.

Anne Evans But there's kids in it. So that's always kinda cool, just to have this thing, like, pop up and happening-

Tim Fulton Mm-hmm

Anne Evans ... in your city. The International Festival is really huge.

Tim Fulton Uh-huh.

Anne Evans It draws people from all around the state, possibly more, and it celebrates all kinds of cultures. That's a pretty big event that happens, um-

Tim Fulton Where is that now that it's not at Vets Memorial?

Anne Evans It's at the fairgrounds.

Tim Fulton Okay.

Anne Evans The, the state fairgrounds.

Tim Fulton Got it.

Anne Evans Yes. The Breakaway Festival is moving back to Mapfre Stadium, so that's pretty big for them. They were at the Expo Center, and they actually did go away for a little bit.

Tim Fulton Mm-hmm.

Anne Evans And now they've come back, and they're moving back to the Mapfre Stadium. That's pretty big. It's the 25th year for the New Albany Classic, the 30th year for the Dublin Irish Festival.

Tim Fulton Okay.

Anne Evans And Schuller Park turns 150 this year.

Tim Fulton What?

Anne Evans Yes.

Tim Fulton God bless Schuller Park.

Anne Evans Yeah. They've had some art exhibits going on about it.

Tim Fulton Mm-hmm.

Anne Evans I'm not sure if there'll be more to say about that closer to the House and Garden Tour-

Tim Fulton Okay

Anne Evans ... in German Village.

Tim Fulton And we do, just a little preview, we do have an interview coming up with the executive director of Actors Theatre coming up on The Confluence Cast in June, I believe. They have their Shakespeare in the Park series every year.

Anne Evans Also, the King Arts Complex celebrates their annual gala. It's turning 30 this year.

Tim Fulton Okay.

Anne Evans And for the first time, it is not going to be at the King Arts Complex.

Tim Fulton Oh.

Anne Evans It's going to be at the Hilton downtown.

Tim Fulton Very nice. Hopefully that's a good move for them.

Anne Evans Yeah, hopefully. The Coffee Fest will be returning September 30th and October 1st. They're adding some new experiences this year.

Tim Fulton Okay.

Anne Evans And bringing a lot of new coffees from around Columbus and the state, and it's going to be at Ohio Village.

Tim Fulton This is the coffee festival that you guys produce, right?

Anne Evans It is.

Tim Fulton Okay. So there's a little plug there. Little plug.

Anne Evans It's a really fun event. It sold out really quickly last year, so we're making it bigger and having some new things you can do. Also returning is the Columbus Open Studio and Stage that was put on by the Greater Columbus Arts Council.

Tim Fulton Mm-hmm.

Anne Evans The first year was last year. It was successful. People really enjoy getting to go into artists' studios, chat with the artists, see where they create their art-

Tim Fulton Mm-hmm

Anne Evans ... where they draw inspiration, and it's a fun thing. So that's coming back. And not particularly a festival, but another big event that's coming back is The Big Table by The Columbus Foundation-

Tim Fulton Mm-hmm

Anne Evans ... on May 17th. If you want to join others in the community and talk about things you wanna see changed, things you like, just discussions you wanna have-

Tim Fulton Mm-hmm

Anne Evans ... you can find a Big Table conversation and join in.

Tim Fulton And we will certainly, again, have links to all of these festivals and, and non-festival related things that we've discussed today in the show notes for this episode. I wanna wrap things up just by encouraging people to take advantage of this festival season and get out there and be a part of your community in Columbus, your smaller communities, your neighborhoods, your, you know, the suburbs, the independence NCE festivals that are happening, and just be a part of your community. This is the, the time of year for that. So.

Anne Evans Right. You will have around 300 chances to get out and go to a festival this year all the way through to the end of the year. One more thing that's cool that's going to be coming back-

Tim Fulton Mm-hmm

Anne Evans ... is the Ohio Chinese Festival taking place at the Natural Resources Park at the Ohio Expo Center-

Tim Fulton Okay

Anne Evans ... and Fairgrounds. That was really amazing if you didn't get a chance to see that.

Tim Fulton This is the touring festival-

Anne Evans Yes

Tim Fulton ... of the, the Lantern Festival, basically.

Anne Evans Yes.

Tim Fulton Got it. Got it.

Anne Evans It was really cool, and it's coming back, so put it on your calendar for November.

Tim Fulton Kind of not the festival season. But here's your early warning. It's coming back. Anne, thank you so much for your time and, uh, we'll see you at the festivals.

Anne Evans Thanks.

Tim Fulton Thank you for listening to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. Again, you can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Please rate, subscribe, share this episode of the Confluence Cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your favorite festival-goer. If you're interested in sponsoring the Confluence Cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info@theconfluencecast.com. Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. Have a great week.