Obetz Zucchinifest - Obetz, Ohio

The Obetz Zucchinifest takes place at Fortress Obetz where it offers both national and local entertainment on two stages, plenty of rides and games, a car show, vendors and food, including zucchini breads and zucchini craft beer.

2023 DATE: September 1-4, 2023
Location: Fortress Obetz
2015 Recreation Trail
Obetz, OH 43207
Website: https://obetzzucchinifest.com/

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This post documents my experience on August 26, 2011 when it took place at Memorial Park.

When going to festivals in smaller towns, I usually don’t have a problem finding them. I put “downtown” in the GPS and then cruise into the town, looking for roads closed for the event, carnival rides peaking over buildings or a line of cars all turning down the same road..

For the Obetz Zucchinifest, I decided to use the website for parking information. And, although there weren’t directions on where to go…

…there was this map.

So I typed “Speedway Lane” in the GPS….

…but, when I got there, I had a sudden doubt and decided not to turn.

My hesitation came because I didn’t see signs, any carnival rides in the distance or even any cars turning down this road. So I headed into Obetz, where I drove along winding roads, turned around a lot and eventually followed cars through a suburban neighborhood to a parking field where tractors took you to the festival in the distance.

Not wanting to wait around for a ride on tractors, I headed back to Speedway Lane because I thought it might be closer to the festival itself and, this time, I saw the sign pointing me in.

I cursed myself for not seeing it the first time and found a parking place.

But once I got out of the car…

…I realized that there was tractor transport service on this side too!

I sighed and decided to walk…

…first passing an area for an enormous car show…

…where historical cars were showcased in their freshly waxed glory…

…and then a beer vendor all by its lonesome…

…before I made it to the stage.

Unlike many other festivals, the audience area was quite ample and with good reason. There was a large focus on the musical entertainment at the Zucchinifest and Rick Springfield was going to be playing Saturday night.

Mighty impressive for a village of 4000.

And, although I didn’t see Rick perform…

…I was pretty impressed by the bit of music I did see/hear.

But I still hadn’t reached the official festival grounds yet…

…they were way over there!

I eventually made my way as the tractors drove past me and, once arrived, I took notice of…

…lines of vendors…

…including those who celebrated Halloween a bit early…

…a carnival area with rides and carnival food…

…a large dining tent…

…and plenty of food vendors.

Being that the website advertised zucchini treats, I combed the food vendor menus for interesting zucchini dishes. I had a particular craving for zucchini pancakes, but was willing to settle for some fried zucchini, fried zucchini blossoms or the advertised zucchini burgers.

But even though booths fried…