Skip to content

The prettiest festival in Cleveland

2013 May 19

One of our favorite summerthings is to go to Cleveland’s fine festivals, but usually they don’t start until Memorial Weekend. This year we kicked things off a little earlier than usual with the Hessler Street Fair. I can’t believe we’ve never been. The fair opens up on Hessler Road, which is kind of tucked back in the University Circle area. It’s been going on since the 1960s. If you’ve never been, go. It’s might be my favorite festival right now.

We’ve never been on this beautifully bricky little road even when the festival isn’t going on. But the trees kind of arch over it, and the houses are all crumbly and viny. It’s like if Athens, Ohio, and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream had a baby.

And they have a poetry wall. And food. And art/stuff for sale. We only brought $7, so we just got some lemonade. But if we had planned a little better, I would have gotten the plate of falafel from the Algebra Tea House and this mobile made out of forks and spoons that some guy was selling for $10. Maybe next time.

The best part was the Harmony Park, which was snuggled way back on Hessler Court through a stone archway. Inside this gardeny-brickwall area, there was a veryshort but verylong tea table covered in cups and little kids playing tea.  They had giant flowers everywhere, face painting, chalk drawing, and balloons. It was probably the most adorable little kid thing I’ve ever seen in Cleveland.

More teatime: We hung out here in the shade of this big, old tree for awhile. This is what I imagine baby dreams look like.

Don’t eat the chalk!

No comments yet

Leave a Reply

Note: You can use basic XHTML in your comments. Your email address will never be published.

Subscribe to this comment feed via RSS