The Tiffin Seneca Heritage Festival is a double festival since there is a traditional festival located in downtown Tiffin and a “Living Village” festival at Hedges Boyer Park.
2023 DATE: September 15-17, 2023
Location 1: Downtown Tiffin
Location 2: Hedges Boyer Park
491 Coe St
Tiffin, OH 44883
Website: https://www.tiffinfestival.com/
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This post documents my experience on September 18, 2011.
Not too long ago, I attended two festivals in Sunbury and Galena that ran simultaneously and were connected by a trolley service. And, even though they seemed to support each other, I gave each of these festivals their own posts because they occurred in different cities and were listed separately.
The Tiffin Seneca Heritage Festival also involves two rather separate festivals that run simultaneously (although the downtown festival ran on its own on Friday) and were connected by a shuttle service. But these festivals occur in the same city and are directed under the same website and listing.
Therefore, I am putting my reviews of them under the same post, but counting them as two festivals.
That said…
…let’s look at the Downtown Street Festival first.
The downtown festival was an admission-free town festival…
…with an almost hidden ride/game area across from the court house…
…a block of various food vendors…
…including tacos and mini donuts…
…a second block for other vendors…
…who sold things from autumn decor to local produce…
…a beer garden and pavilion…
…that housed music entertainment…
…and a rather happy hand-shaking duck that waddled about the entire area.
One mile away, in the $3 admission land of Hedges-Boyer Park…
…where things weren’t as civilized…
…history came to life through re-enactor/living history encampments…
…some of which were made up by the local re-enactment group, the Seneca Muzzleloaders, who made this festival their first public event back in 1994.
Encampment areas were set up throughout the park, based on the time period…
…from the early pioneers…
…to the Civil War…
…the latter having some cool cannon demonstrations…
…and an Ohio chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans…
…who set up a museum of information in regards to the South.
Throughout the historical village….
…re-enactors lay out their items for trade on a blanket…
…while interacting with each other…
…demonstrating their craft…
…practicing medicine…
…holding church services…
…playing music for tips…
…and educating through historical narrative.
You could also visit Mark Twain’s place for some fine fictional narrative…
…but only when he wasn’t busy hanging with the neighboring Henkle’s.
There was something for everyone in the Living History Village, including…
…old fashioned games…
…activities for the kids…
…musical entertainment…
…cultural entertainment…
…shopping galore…
…and an interesting selection of historical grub, including fried bologna, chili…
…and even peach shortcake.
With all these historical vittles….
…it’s a wonder their clothing fit at all!