Longest running festival in Ohio draws thousands to Sugarcreek for 3-day event
SUGARCREEK – The longest running festival in Ohio, the Ohio Swiss Festival, celebrated its 70th year over the weekend. The first festival was held on Oct. 2-3, 1953. Sponsored by Swiss cheesemakers in the area, the two-day-long event celebrated 120 years since Jacob Steiner arrived from Switzerland. The festival has since grown to a three-day affair.
Throughout the weekend, revelers dressed in traditional garb as well as common folk had a wide variety of activities to enjoy from typical festival games and rides to various parades, a cheese eating contest, a stone throwing competition and more.
According to Scott Gerber, president of the festival board, the company operating the rides – just coming off working the Tuscarawas County Fair – almost doubled the amount of sales compared to last year's festival. He echoed that sentiment about food sales, indicating that many vendors were running out of a lot of menu items and products on Saturday. Gerber estimated that between 8,000 and 10,000 people attended the festivities on Saturday alone.
"The apple fritters are a mainstay. There were deep lines – three to four lines, 16 to 20 deep for hours. They just kept coming for fritters," Gerber added.
He passed down the proverbial stein during noon ceremonies at the main stage, relinquishing his duties to incoming president, April Beachy, who had been working as first vice president for a few years. Gerber had been involved for 12 years, officially working the last 10 as president of the board of trustees. He said he'll continue to work with the board, "going behind the scenes somewhere to help out the leadership."
"I was kind of the leader of promoting the 70th (festival), and it was a 2-year-old baby that got born. It's hard to put that much energy into every festival," Gerber said.
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The festival is as much a homecoming for some as it is a travel destination for others. People traveled from as far as Switzerland, China, and Kuwait, as well as many other states across America. Gerber emphasized, "We do it for the love of Sugarcreek. We all grew up in Sugarcreek. People keep coming back to it, and they love it. I'm not knocking other festivals, but even our dress (wear) is authentic Swiss – it’s from the Canton of Bern, Switzerland.”
The Canton of Bern is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation.
Quirky, unique competitions, and traditional performances
Winning the Swiss cheese eating competition this year was a true test of the might, an 11-person field gnawed on a half-pound block of cheese with a bottle of water at hand to wash it all down. For the winner, Daniel Birch, successful consumption was apparently all in the genes as he is a fourth generation cheesemaker of Pearl Valley Cheese heritage in Fresno.
By far the biggest draw of the three-day event, Steinstossen, a traditional Swiss strength competition in which men throw a 138-pound stone and women throw a 75-pound stone, was at standing room only capacity around the pit for the Saturday afternoon session. Local legend Jeff Bitticker, who lives on Atwood Lake, tossed another one into the pit to mark his 50th year competing in the sport. He plans on returning for many more competitions to come as long as he is capable.
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Of course, no Ohio Swiss Festival is replete without the Alphorns. Alphorn Gruezie, which translates to Alphorn Greetings, consists of a core group of Alphorn players in Central Ohio that played throughout the festival, even debuting an oversized custom-made bass Alphorn.
A list of all festival results will be released as they are compiled at ohioswissfestival.com/results.html. You can also follow the festival on Facebook at facebook.com/OhioSwissFestival.
T-R staff photographer Andrew Dolph can be reached by phone at 330-289-6072, or by email, [email protected]
This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Swiss culture celebrated at annual festival in Sugarcreek
