The Great Trail Festival

The Great Trail Festival

This year will be their 37th annual Great Trail Festival. The Great Trail Festival is a special celebration of American Folk Art, with Contemporary and Country Crafting. It’s a very unique experience which invites your discovery and pleasure. When visiting the Storybook Craft Village you will find handcrafted gifts and treasured keepsakes. There are a lot of different vendors with distinctive arts & crafts and they are the heart of the Great Trail Festival. The festival is held annually at the Great Trail Festival Grounds and features exhibitors from Ohio and surrounding states.

Some of the costumes you may see

At the Festival you will not only find handmade and homemade crafts, you will find kettle corn (my personal favorite) and more types of food from that era. Great Trail is the Hallmark of Distinctive Exhibitors and colorful living history. In one section of the festival there are actors who are dressed in things from that era and they have weapons from then also. They have a cannon that goes off every hour and I personally think that is really cool.

Little Spirit

As you enter the gates to the festival you will see a herd of bison to your right. Bison were reintroduced into Carroll County in 1983. There was a group of five bison that the Great Trail Festival owners bought and the bison you see as you drive in the gates are the descendants of those five bison. At one point there was a very rare white calf born into this herd of bison. His name was Little Spirit. Little Spirit was stillborn and was found at dusk while one of the workers was walking the fence line. Little Spirit was then sent to a taxidermist. You can find Little Spirit at the front gates of the Great Trail.

I have been going to the festival since I was a little girl and I still love going there with my family and friends. You never see the same thing twice when you go there. There are a few weekends out of the year that they are open and that is August 25th-26th and September 1st through the 3rd. They are open from 10am to 5pm. For adults it cost six dollars and four dollars for anyone between the ages of 10-18, and children ten and under are free. I highly recommend going, it’s an amazing experience.