Music & Arts in Westerville

Westerville, one of the neighboring towns of Columbus, was having their annual Music & Arts Festival put on by the local Chamber of Commerce.  We decided to check it out and were pleasantly surprised (especially since it fell on Bastille Day and I was sad we were not in France!).

I’ve been to the arts festival in Columbus and a few other festivals in neighboring communities so I guess I was expecting something really small.  Boy was I wrong!  Don’t get me wrong – it’s no state fair or anything too big but there were many, many tents filled with craftsmanship for the adults and kids, including fun sprinkler-like lawn art, jewelry, paintings and photography.

It’s easy to get to with plenty of parking at the Westerville Sports Complex, and there was one trolley running back and forth to drop off and pick up.  Sadly this was probably Jolie’s favorite part as she thought she was on a train!

The festival itself is nicely set up at Heritage Park with music playing at both ends of the park and plenty of space to walk through to explore.In the center of it all were some craft activities for the younger kids.  There were plenty of volunteers that were helping the kids and making sure they had all the supplies you could need (Jolie gets a little impatient, hmm wonder where she gets that from).

Jolie got to color with markers and ”hunt” for bracelets and other finds on the wishing tree.  But of course, she was hungry so we took her to the food area where she had her first corn dog ever.

My only recommendation for improvement would be on the food.  There were burgers, gyros, corn dogs, Market District’s asian cuisine and funnel cake and that’s about it.  Nothing too terribly healthy.  I would have liked to have seen some fresh fruit from the local farmer’s market or something else to give more options.

All in all it was a nice way to hear & explore our local music & arts for a couple of hours.  Do you have a local festival that you just love?

Tips:
-This event was very stroller friendly.
-There are plenty of chairs to sit at to enjoy the music so no need to bring your own.
-Note bathrooms are porta-pottys (ugh).
-Kids activities are for walking toddlers and older.  Most likely the bigger “cooler” kids may not really care for this.