Everyone has their own favorite season in our region. There’s the incomparable beauty and coolness of Fall. The ethereal quietude of Winter. The magic and miracle of spring. Then the festival season will start.

Actually, Clevelanders love a festival so much that the “season” has expanded its reaches well into every part of the year with events such as Kurentovanje and Brite Winter Fest. But the “something every weekend” season starts in May (with a few choice events in April) and then it gets hard to keep up.

We’re dropping this annual guide a little earlier this year because, with the exception of a handful of festivals in September, everybody’s got their dates set and planning is underway. As usual, there are some new events (Akron’s StageFest in June, for instance, and the debut of Akron Pride in August) and some are gone (Cudell’s Clifton Arts & Music Fest is taking the year off due to construction in the area). Others are going stronger in their 40th or 50th year —or in the case of the Great Geauga County Fair, going on two centuries!

Publishing our list early also gives you readers the chance to fill in any we’ve missed. We’re looking for festivals that people would travel from outside the community or neighborhood to attend, and this list isn’t intended to capture recurring weekly concerts or monthly events — that’s a whole other subject!

We hope you’ll plan to get out and about this summer, and be adventurous. Put something on your calendar that you’ve never attended before!

*****

Mon 4/17: Dyngus Day

DyngusDay

Sat 4/22: Earthfest

earthdaycoalition

Thu 4/27-Sun 4/30: Geauga County Maple Festival

maplefestival

Sat 4/29: Ramp Up Peninsula Ramp Fest

RAMP-UP-Peninsula

Sat 5/13: The Hooley on Kamm’s Corners

TheHooley

Sat 5/20-Sun 5/21: Cleveland Asian Festival

clevelandasianfestival

Sat 5/20-Sun 5/21: Rooms to Let

rooms-to-let-cle/

Thu 5/25-Sun 5/28: Chagrin Falls Blossom Time Festival

blossom-time-festival/

Fri 5/26-Mon 5/29: Berea National Rib Cook-Off

berearib

Fri 5/26-Mon 5/29: Tremont Greek Festival

tremontgreekfest

Sat 6/3-Sun 6/4: Art in the Village Art Festival

ArtintheVillage

Sat 6/3: Summit StageFest

summitstagefest

Sat 6/3: Pride in the CLE

prideinthecle

Sat 6/3-Sun 6/4: Hessler Street Fair

hesslerstreetfair

Sat 6/11: Taste of Lakewood

tasteoflakewood

Wed 6/7-Fri 6/9: AHA! Festival at Cleveland State University

ahacsu

Fri 6/9-Sat 6/10: Canton Blues Festival

canton-blues-festival/

Sat 6/10: Put-in-Bay Music Festival

Put-in-BayMusicFestival

Sat 6/10-Sun 6/11: Chagrin Falls Art by the Falls

artbythefalls

Sat 6/10-Sun 6/11: Crocker Park Fine Art Fair

CrockerParkFineArtFair

Sat 6/10-Sun 6/11: Hale Farm Sow and Grow Farm Festival

sow-and-grow-farm-festival

Sat 6/10: Parade the Circle

parade-the-circle

Sat 6/10-Sun 6/11: LaureLive

laurelive

Fri 6/16-Sun 6/18: Vermilion Festival of the Fish

FestivaloftheFish

Fri 6/16-Sun 6/18: Avon Heritage Duck Tape Festival

ducktapefestival

Sat 6/17: BayARTS & Music Festival

bayarts

Sat 6/17: Larchmere Porchfest

larchmereporchfest

Thu 6/22-Sat 6/24: Tri-C JazzFest

tri-c.edu/jazzfest/

Fri 6/23-Sat 6/24: Ohio Scottish Games

ohioscottishgames

Fri 6/23-Sun 6/25: Rock The Docks, Akron

rockthedocks

Sat 6/24: Waterloo Arts Fest

waterlooarts

Sat 6/24-Sun 6/25: Mulberry Creek Herb Fest

mulberrycreek

Fri 6/30-Sun 7/2: Italian American Summer Fest at Berea Fairgrounds

italianamericansummerfestival

Fri 6/30-Tue 7/4: Rib White and Blue, Akron

rib-white-and-blue

Fri 7/7-Sun 7/9: Cain Park Arts Festival

cainpark

Sat 7/7-Sun 7/9: Harborfest Tall Ships Adventure

fairportharbor

Sat 7/8-Sun 7/9: Music in the Valley Folk & Wine Festival

music-in-the-valley-folk-wine-festival/

Thu 7/13-Sat 7/15: Summit County Italian American Festival

it-am

Fri 7/14-Sun 7/16: Painesville Party in the Park

parkpartyinfo

Sun 7/16: Taste of Tremont

Taste-of-Tremont

Fri 7/21-Sun 7/23: Cleveland Irish Cultural Festival

clevelandirish

Fri 7/21 & Sat 7/22: Uncorked Medina Wine Festival

uncorkedmedinawinefest

Sat 7/22: Mentor Headlands Beach Fest

headlandsbeachfest

Sat 7/22-Sun 7/23: African-American Festival at Lock 3 Live

akronafricanculture

Tue 7/25-Sun 7/30: Lake Country Fair

lakecountyfair

Fri 7/28-Sat 7/29: Avon Annual Summer Market

TheSummerMarket

Sat 7/29: The Signal Tree Festival at Lock 3

signaltreefest

Thu 8/3-Sun 8/6: Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival, Canton

pro-football-hall-of-fame-enshrinement-festival

Thu 8/3-Sat 8/5: Ohio Burlesque Festival

ohioburlesque

Fri 8/4-Sat 8/5: Vintage Ohio at Lake Metroparks

lakemetroparks

Fri 8/4/-Sun 8/6: Latino Arts & Culture Celebration and Puerto Rican Parade

latino-arts-and-culture-celebration-and-puerto-rican-parade

Fri 8/4-Sun 8/6: Twins Day Festival in Twinsburg

twinsdays

Sat 8/5: Lakewood Arts Fest

lakewoodartsfest

Sun 8/6: Warehouse District Festival

warehousedistrict

Mon 8/7-Sun 8/13: Cuyahoga County Fair

cuyfair

Sat 8/12: Cleveland Dragon Boat Festival

cledba

Fri 8/11-Sun 8/13: Ohio Celtic Festival

ohiocelticintfest

Sat 8/12-Tue 8/15: Feast of the Assumption

feast-info

Sat 8/12-Sun 8/13: National Hamburger Festival

hamburgerfestival

Thu 8/24-Sun 8/27: St. Constantine & Helen Greek Festival

greekfestival

Fri 8/18-Sat 8/19: Burning River Fest

burningriverfoundationfestival

Fri 8/18-Sun 8/20: Weapons of Mass Creation

wmcfest

Sat 8/19-Sun 8/20: Second Annual Flats Festival of the Arts

flats-festival-arts

Sat 8/19: Highland Square Porch Rockr

porchrokr

Sat 8/26: Akron Pride

akronpride

Sat 8/26-Sun 8/27: Cleveland Pagan Pride

clevelandpaganpride

Sat 8/26-Sun 8/27: Cleveland Garlic Festival

clevelandgarlicfestival

Sat 8/27: One World Day

ClevelandOneWorldDay

Thu 8/31-Mon 9/4: Great Geauga County Fair

geaugafair

Fri 9/1-Mon 9/4: Cleveland Labor Day Oktoberfest

clevelandoktoberfest

Thu 9/7-Sat 9/9: Heights Music Hop

HeightsMusicHop

Thu 9/7-Sun 9/10: Thunder on the Strip, Geneva-on-the-Lake

thunderonthestrip

Fri 9/8-Sun 9/10: NEOCycle

neocycle

Sat 9/9: Skunkfest

Skunkfest

Sat 9/16: Blue Sky Folk Fest

blueskyfolkfest

Sat 9/16-Sun 9/17: Tremont Arts & Cultural Festival

tremont-arts-cultural-festival

Sat 9/16-Sun 9/17: Chalk Festival

chalk-festival

Fri 9/22-Sun 9/24: Ingenuity Festvival

IngenuityCleveland

Sat 9/23: Music on the Porches, Peninsula

musicontheporches

Sat 9/23-Sun 9/24: Mulberry Creek Garlic Festival

mulberrycreek

Sun 9/24: Ohio City Street Festival

OHCStreetFest

Fri 10/6-Sat 10/7: FireFish Festival

FirefishFestival

Sat 10/14-Sun 10/15: Ashtabula County Covered Bridge Festival

coveredbridgefestival

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