My family and I look forward to this event every year! The last 10 years we have been a vendor…read morerepresenting a non-profit that has Apple cider and water by donation. But that aside, this is a great family-friendly event with arts & crafts vendors, food, a chance to mix Apple Butter over huge fire pit, and plenty of free activities for kids and adults alike. The performers on the central stage with straw bales in the seating area makes a good place to rest before tackling more shopping, eating, or meeting up with friends you haven't seen since the last Apple Butter Day. Highly recommend this event. It's always on the 2nd Saturday in October.

A little Groveport history: Back in the day, Groveport was 2 settlements - Wert's Grove and…read moreRarey's Port. Wert's Grove was settled primarily as an orchard and the streets on this side of the village reflect that (Cherry, Oak, Walnut, Grove, etc.) Although there isn't an Apple Street, the residents of Groveport decided Apple Butter Day was a good way to remember the town's start and bring together the community. Volunteers start weeks before the festival making apple butter from scratch using manual methods (i.e. a copper kettle over a fire and a wooden stirrer on a long pole). Most of this is canned for people to buy at the festival (or at the Heritage Center throughout the year), but some is saved to be reheated the day of the festival and sold with thick pieces of homemade bread for $2 a slice. If nothing else, I have to get a slice of this bread!! In the meantime, there is entertainment (animals and pony rides for the kids, live music, apple butter making demos, etc.), food (churches and youth groups make better than your average fair food and fudge, lots of fudge), and vendors (get your Christmas shopping done early!). I think that this event is getting better as it goes on. This last one was packed with people and there was enough going on to keep us down there for several hours!

This is one of the young'uns of the art festival season in Central Ohio. This year was its 5th and…read morethey've gone through numerous changes over the years. In its early days, they tried to cram as much into the event as possible - tons of vendors, music, food, wine. But the problem with that is you got 10 exhibitors showing the same things and it got a bit monotonous. This year was one of its better years. They had fewer exhibitors (around 30ish) but they were of a higher quality. The show is juried, but I didn't see who had won. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough! But either way, there was a nice selection to look through and I got a lot of ideas for gifts coming up. The live music was a nice touch and I didn't touch the food section but festival food is always good! I'm not sure that I would make a trip out of my way to visit this art festival at this point. But if you're nearby, its a nice stop off for your Saturday!

Went for a food festival, and it was a good place for that. Plenty of parking, in a nice lot…read more Facility seems pretty new. And turns out, this is where Columbus Speedway was, and I had been there years... well, decades ago. The festival didn't use the field, but had tables in a beer garden by the entry, and music, and then vendors and competitors between that and the stadium (and under the shade of the bleachers, thankfully.) Well arranged, plenty of tables, plenty of trash cans, easy to get around. Some things out in the sun, which was fine but hot. I'd come back for a concert or festival- I hear the zuke fest is here.

obetz umpiring is awful. They don't know what's fair or foul. They don't know box kids are…read moregetting trained awfully and I feel sorry for the a grip ump

Boy am I lucky. My son and soon to be daughter in law gifted us with a HUGE assortment of goodies…read more Pecan Pie...yum. These huge caramel pecan cookies...yum yum. An assortment of flavors of fudge. And turtles and who doesn't like candy. Not a thing here that we don't love. The only negative is they are far away from us. What a treat!!!!!

Lots of locals know this as the former Smith farms. Still the same great farm vegetables and fruit…read morewith lots of jellies and fresh baked goods. There is a real difference in great taste and smells of items sold here and those in the grocery stores. The staff seemed to be students mostly, eager to help. The ice cream store is still attached, but the flavors seemed lacking and the atmosphere kind of sad. We passed and went to UDF instead.

Can we talk about how to kill a good idea? About 60,000 people jammed the Arena District for the…read more2014 FMMF's three day event. It was big, real big. But then someone got to thinking... And a year later, the festival promoters got the great idea to fence in the festival and charge a general admission fee. A one day ticket for just one person? $60. You read that right, $60. Now I'm not into fashion but as far as the music goes, it's an open air festival. Many people realized that you could just walk up to the fence and listen to the music...for free. Hundreds and hundreds of people did do just that. BTW Ludacris's "Number One Spot" sounded just fine through that chain link fence... The promoters also came up with the great idea of selling one day VIP Tickets for $110 per person. Now according to their website, purchasing a VIP ticket got you these additional benefits over general admission: "preferred viewing areas, preferred restrooms and priority entry at the gate". Well, I never once saw anything resembling a line to get into the festival so in reality that extra $50 bought you the privilege of stepping right up to the head of the porta potty line any time you liked. Now doesn't that make your tushie feel special? On a positive note, I give a thumbs up to the promoters for trying to get some better entertainment this year and for including more local food trucks instead of relying on the carnival food fare like they did before. 2 Stars this year.

If you had asked me 5 years ago to rate the Village of Groveport's Independence Day Festival, I…read morewould have given it 4 stars. But over the past few years, and the downtown in the economy, its gotten a little weaker. In fact, it used to be a 3-day festival with live bands, food, and entertainment, but now its only one day with no live bands, only a few bouncy castles for the kids and a parade that I think is getting more and more peaked by the year. What redeems this event is that it really is a family event and you can spend all day here and have a good time. The children's parade starts at 10am and ends at a carnival. The main parade was at 1.30 and featured Eric Smith of the New York Jets as the grand marshall. The fireworks are surprisingly good and lasted around 30 minutes. Quite a few people come to watch the fireworks so parking can get a bit tight. The school lot was completely filled up but the cops aren't too diligent about ticketing for parking illegally during the fireworks (but you'd better move your car right afterwards) or you can also park for free at the rec center down the road. Or if you don't want to walk or risk a ticket, several of the houses along Main offer parking for $5 a car in their yards.