It’s Northeast Ohio’s time to shine with arts, culture and fun in the sun. Schedule your free time with this guide to a few of the many events, festivals, beaches, parks, concerts and museums awaiting your senses in 2024!
Pride in the CLE and beyond
Akron Pride Festival happens in August, with a 5K run from Canal Place on Aug. 23 and the festival Downtown on Aug. 24.
Festivals and food
June 14-16 & July 19-21 Kiss in Cuyahoga Falls if you’re Irish, or even if you’re not, when the annual Riverfront Irish Festival brings food, music and dance to Downtown, June 14-16. A month later, the Cleveland Irish Cultural Festival comes to the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds, July 19-21.
Aug. 2-4
Twinsburg’s 1976 Bicentennial parade featured 36 pairs of twins in a nod to the city’s founders. It was spun off in ’77 and continues today as the Twins Day Festival in Glenn Chamberlin Park.
Aug. 3
There’s no surf in Cleveland, just volleyball and a sandcastle competition as the 2024 AIA Cleveland Sand Festival hits Edgewater Beach.
Aug. 3-4
Cleveland’s 54th Puerto Rican Parade & Cultural Festival kicks off Aug. 3 at noon at MetroHealth Hospital’s main campus. The parade itself is at 11 a.m. on Aug. 4. Entertainment this year includes singers Edwin Lebron and Gaby Zambrano.
Aug. 17-18
The Wayne County Agricultural Society marks its 175th anniversary over two days of events including a donut eating contest, tractor pull, mullet growing demonstration, and a parade at 10 a.m. on Aug. 17 in Downtown Wooster.
Aug. 24-25
The Cleveland Garlic Festival breezes into Shaker Square with live entertainment in addition to the variety of garlicy eats.
Aug. 25
The Cleveland Cultural Gardens are open year-round, but One World Day on Aug. 25 is a chance to learn more about the different cultures represented in Northeast Ohio. The day begins with a naturalization ceremony for new citizens and continues with music, dance and food.
Aug. 30-Sept. 2
Three dozen food trucks come to Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica for Cleveland Taco Fest, while Oktoberfest storms into the fairgrounds in Berea (and continues the following weekend, Sept. 6-7).
Sports
July 18-Aug. 5
The Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival kicks off July 21 with a community parade in Downtown Canton. From July 26-28, the festival takes off with the Balloon Classic, bringing hot air balloons to Kent State University’s Stark campus. The week also includes a concert by Carrie Underwood, the annual Hall of Fame game and numerous chances to interface with the Class of 2024 before - and after - they’re enshrined on Aug. 3 at noon.
And if you can't get enough of balloons-in-Canton, the Big Balloon Build comes to town July 18-22. The traveling event brings 250,000 balloons to the city's Cultural Center for the Arts to create "a mystical folklore and fantasy world."
In the theater
June 8-July 28
Wooster’s Ohio Light Opera presents six lyric theater titles throughout the summer: “The Gondoliers,” “The Arcadians,” “The Count of Luxembourg,” “Me and My Girl,” “Guys and Dolls” and “The Sound of Music.”
July 24-27
The BorderLight Theatre Festival returns to Playhouse Square with performances from around the globe spanning drama, comedy, dance and music.
Aug. 6-11
Rose, Blanche, Dorothy and Sophia vault from the 1980s to 2024 as Playhouse Square presents “Golden Girls: The Laughs Continue,” a reimagining of Miami’s sassiest seniors.
Live music
May 16-Sept. 21
On Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights from 6-8 p.m., Downtown Wooster pulses with everything from rock to big band to folk in the Main Street Music series.
Aug. 17
Music is everywhere in Akron’s Highland Square with the PorchROKR Music and Art Festival. In the evening, Franz Welser-Most returns to the Blossom stage in Cuyahoga Falls for his first show of the summer to conduct Tchaikovsky's Fifth.
Juneteenth celebrations
June 15-July 26
ARTFUL Cleveland presents its third annual Juneteenth art show, with an opening reception June 15 at 6 p.m. Featuring emerging and established Black artists, the show runs through July 26.
Exhibits, programs and more…
If you’re old enough to remember the dinosaurs at Cedar Point or actual dinosaurs, then the Cleveland Zoo’s new Dino Cove might bring back some great memories. A collection of more than 25 animatronic dinosaurs is open for a limited time.
The Akron Zoo has events throughout the summer and closes out the warm weather by thanking Summit County residents with free days starting Sept. 1. Tickets are limited and must be reserved in advance.
Beginning Memorial Day weekend, the Hubbard House Underground Railroad Museum in Ashtabula hosts visitors on weekends starting at 1 p.m. Learn the history of the Connecticut Western Reserve and see Civil War artifacts in the home which helped people to freedom.
Northeast Ohio is home to one of the few dark parks east of the Mississippi River, with Observatory Park in Montville. The environment, unpolluted by light, is perfect for astronomy with evening events throughout the summer. If skies are clear, the park hosts night sky viewing through its Oberle telescope on May 24-25 and June 6, 7 and 22.
Celebrate M.C. Escher's 126th birthday with a visit to the new Museum of Illusions. It opens June 1 in the historic May Company building on Public Square… or does it?
Downtown Akron teems with activity on Wednesdays. A weekly happy hour on Cascade Plaza (5-9 p.m.) includes local music and a cornhole league. And on the second Wednesday of each month, there’s an open mic night at Northside Marketplace. Sign-ups start at 5:30 p.m.
Kick-off National Get Outdoors Month on June 2 with a hike at Mentor Marsh. The Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Carol H. Sweet Nature Center at 5185 Corduroy Road is open on Sundays all summer, noon - 5 p.m.
Screen legend Katharine Hepburn worked closely with designers throughout her career, pushing for outfits which provided comfort, flattery and movement. “The Hepburn Style: Katharine and Her Designers” opens at the Kent State University Museum on June 28 and runs until 2025.
Several exhibits of Indian, Korean, Andean, Native American and Jewish artifacts are on view all summer at the Cleveland Museum of Art. A photography exhibit, "Picturing the Border," opens July 21 with images from the U.S.-Mexico border taken since the 1970s.
As if President William McKinley's victory in the Spanish-American War wasn't remarkable enough, he also championed… the men's trouser crease. A program August 8 at the McKinley Presidential Library & Museum in Canton will discuss how fashion, and world power, shifted on this fashion choice.
