Cleveland Annual Events & Festivals
Some of us never leave Cleveland and with all the festivals that Cleveland offers, we don’t have to. “From now through Labor Day, dozens of ethnic, arts and street fests will roll out enough music, food and partying to make you feel like you’ve traveled (and eaten) your way around the world.”
Brite Winter Festival
This is the festival for when it’s snowy and cold and anxiety is high to have some summer fun but can’t. The Brite Winter Festival will feature things we love: music, art and outdoor activities. This festival takes place in Ohio City February 14th – 4pm – 11pm already in its fifth year.
Cleveland International Film Festival
The eleven-day festival screens more than 200 new independent feature and short films from local filmmakers as well as those from throughout the United States and dozens of foreign countries. The festival is held in the heart of downtown Cleveland at the five screen Tower City Cinemas.
Cleveland Asian Festival
Free Admission, free Parking, free tour of AsiaTown, free performances and demonstration on two outdoor stages, a World Marketplace of 100+ vendors, 20+ restaurants, caterers, and cultural associations offering authentic Asian cuisine, free health screenings at the Health Pavilion inside Asia Plaza, free children’s activity area, Free games and “Sumo” Wrestling, and eating contests!
Hessler Street Fair
The fair typically includes arts and crafts vendors, vegetarian food, and street performances, as well as main stage performances of folk music, reggae, and capoeira. Proceeds are used to restore, preserve, and maintain residences in the Hessler Neighborhood Association.
Great American Rib Cook Off
The Marc’s Great American Rib Cook-Off is a much-loved Cleveland festival oozing of everything good about summer: live music, barbecue, and, of course, cold beer. Each Memorial Day weekend, thousands gather at Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica to indulge in Cleveland’s largest and most delicious cookout.
Parade the Circle
Parade the Circle, held each June in Cleveland’s University Circle neighborhood, is a free, interactive, multi-cultural celebration. The highlight of the day’s events is the festive parade around Wade Oval, with the citizens marching in their fanciful, hand-made costumes. Other features include dozens of hands-on activities, a live concert stage, and roving street performers.
Party in Gordon Square
Free public event featuring outdoor theatre performances, beer gardens, art, fashion, food, and more.
Cleveland Wine Festival
The Cleveland Wine Festival, held each summer, is a two-day celebration of wine, food, music, and friends. Events include wine and food demonstrations, wine tastings, and live music.
Clifton Arts Fest
The Clifton Arts and Musicfest has been established as a unique celebration combining fine arts and live musical performances – a true street festival located in an attractive
and vibrant urban neighborhood. This annually anticipated event places a special emphasis on the pride, vitality and diversity of this community in Cleveland and northeast Ohio.
Larchmere Porch Fest
The purpose of Larchmere PorchFest is to Support and promote the arts by planning, conducting, displaying, or collaborating with others to plan, conduct or display live musical, theatrical and artistic performances or exhibits to the general public at venues in and around Cleveland.
Cleveland Pride Parade & Festival
Each year, Cleveland Pride hosts an annual event to celebrate diversity in the community. This is the largest LGBTQQI & SA festival representing Northeast Ohio; event occurs every June at Voinovich Park with food, beverages, dancing and entertainment. The mission statement of Cleveland Pride is to be the catalyst for bringing awareness, education, and knowledge of the queer community to the general public in order to discourage/eliminate prejudice and discrimination on the basis of a person’s actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.
Waterloo Arts Fest
This pocket of Collinwood has quietly become a mecca for local artists with dozens of art galleries and quirky shops along Waterloo Road. The one-day festival celebrates this development in late June with a street party that features live music, food and arts vendors, street performers and lots of fun.
Star Spangled Spectacular with the Cleveland Orchestra
Each summer since 1989, The Cleveland Orchestra has presented a free concert for the whole family in downtown Cleveland. This year, the Orchestra celebrates our nation’s founding with a spectacular star-spangled concert for the whole family at Public Square. The program includes popular American favorites and music from the movies.
Tall Ships
The Tall Ships festival is a five-day festival showcasing magnificent tall sailing ships. Activities include ship tours, a ship parade, kids’ discovery area, live entertainment, food, and fun. Visitors can even take a sail-away tour on one of the ships.
Taste of Tremont
The festival, held in the heart of Tremont’s “restaurant district,” showcases the best of Tremont’s food, art and entertainment.
Burning River Festival
Since 2001, folks from all over the Great Lakes region have come together to remember the 1969 burning of the Cuyahoga River and celebrate the renewed sense of eco-consciousness the infamous fire sparked. Intended to raise awareness of environmental issues affecting the Great Lakes region and Cuyahoga River ecosystem, the annual Burning River Fest features educational exhibits from area environmental groups, fresh food from local farms and eateries, live music, and a special appearance by Great Lakes Brewing Company’s® Christmas Ale™!
Puerto Rican Festival
This annual festival features carnival rides, international and local Latino performers, Latin American cuisine and a spirited cultural celebration.
Warehouse District Street Festival
Each year the free Festival offers fabulous food, an art show, live entertainment, residential open houses, unique street performers, corn hole, children’s activities and much more.
Feast of the Assumption
Cleveland’s Feast of the Assumption, held each year in mid-August in the city’s Little Italy neighborhood, is a four-day street fair that celebrates the Catholic Day of Assumption (August 15), when the Virgin Mary died and assumed her place beside Jesus. The Feast is a fun-filled Italian street party with rides, food, live music, a procession, and lots of fun.
Sparx City Hop
As patrons loop through neighborhoods on Trolleys, Tour Guides will share interesting facts and points of interest about architecture, culture, history and the talented residents who celebrate visual and performing arts, and thriving culinary scene. No two neighborhoods are quite alike, and this is the perfect time to learn more about them!
Tremont Art & Cultural Festival
The mission of the Festival is to celebrate the cultural and artistic diversity of Tremont and Greater Cleveland by encouraging the artistic and cultural endeavors of its visual and performing artists. 2014 festival is comprised of children’s educational projects, community non-profit presentations, a showcase of Tremont restaurants, and local artist sales.
Ingenuity Fest
Ingenuity Fest is three days of creativity and innovation. There is a free festival village with visual, performance, and techno art; dance performances; and a variety of live music. The unique aspect of Ingenuity Fest is the mixture of technology and art to form some startling and exciting combinations.
Cleveland Winterfest
The Cleveland holiday season begins each year in Public Square with the Cleveland Winterfest, a day-long event, featuring live music, celebrities, kid’s activities, and ending with fireworks and the lighting of the holiday decorations around the square.
Wade Oval Wednesdays
From mid-June to the end of August come to University Circle’s Wade Oval park located in front of the Cleveland Natural History Museum and Botanical Gardens. Here a series of free Wednesday concerts, ranging from jazz to big-band to classical fills up the area with hundreds of music-loving people. In addition to the concerts, there are movies on selected Wednesdays, starting at 9pm.