Yankee Peddler Festival has managed to grab the attention of a lot of visitors every year for decades. This is an annual event that takes place during the 3 consecutive weekends of September.
This event’s venue has been organized in Clay’s Park for many years, located in Canal Fulton, OH. The visitors can enjoy the festival from 10:30 am to 5:00 pm on the event days.
The theme of the Yankee Peddler Festival Canal Fulton, Ohio, is based on the idea of taking the visitors back in the past to about 200 years and let them experience the lifestyle of colonial America.
It offers a wonderful way to watch the crafters assemble rustic shops created by the master artists and master crafters, along with the beauty of nature in the form of streams and amid lovely wooden dales.
On top of it, the visitors get to taste the colonial days’ food, which is cooked over open fires. This event takes place on seventy-five acres of land and has something to entertain the whole family.
There are town criers spread worldwide to update the visitors about the events happening throughout the day.
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Yankee Peddler Festival allows you to visit the Militia and Mountain Men and learn various crafts with the aid of hands-on instructions.
It is very exciting and surprising to watch how the master artists and crafters create unique objects.
Many visitors find their interest in purchasing these objects for themselves or for someone after witnessing the demonstration.
The crafters, artisans, and vendors who will be a part of the festival are subject to change and can be updated every year.
It takes the whole round year’s efforts for the organizers to offer 3 weekends of entertainment and joy to their visitors.
1. History
This festival is an idea of Bob Yappel, who in the 1970s was a florist, party coordinator, and owner of an advertisement display business. The festival is the result of this man’s inspiration to celebrate the country’s bicentennial.
Their business was to organize parties for big companies of Cleveland. At that time, the parties organized by him and his partners used 600 to 800 people.
As they were already managing to organize big parties, so they thought of doing something for the bicentennial. But this time, it should be held outdoor instead of indoor.
And that is when in 1972, the first Yankee Peddler Festival Canal Fulton Ohio was organized in an 8-acre land of Clay’s Park Resort which has now extended to 75 acres.
At the beginning of the festival, they decided to stay with the idea until 1976 and see what the public’s response toward it is; either it would have reached its peak or would have disappeared.
All the crafters and entertainers who have been a part of this festival for a very long time are very proud of their journey and the hard work they have put together to continue this 3 weekends tradition.
This festival has made efforts to recreate the America of the pioneers. The entire festival ground is covered with wagons, blacksmiths, a Militia, and shops offering food items like bean soup, beef stew, turkey legs, and all this is present in the shady and wooden setting with the footbridges spanning over small streams.
2. The Ideology of the Yankee Peddler Festival
The association’s ideology and the Yankee Peddlers is to take the visitors back to the time when crafting was the only way to live. They work tirelessly to offer as authentic as possible experiences to visitors.
Along with that, they also want the people to enjoy and appreciate the beauty of art and craft, and there is no better way to do it in the presence of nature in its purest form.
They try to recreate the lifestyle of people existing between 1776 – 1825. To retain the essence of that era, all crafters and vendors must dress accordingly and wear the attires people used to wear in those times, and they need to follow it through the festival.
The crafters and vendors are also required to be present on all the 3 weekends of the festival and spend 50% of their time demonstrating their art and craft.
Along with that, they are also expected to provide educational displays and written histories of their craft so that the visitors can easily realize the significance of a craft in the past.
Make sure to visit pioneer America, the exhibitors are only allowed to put handmade and original products in their shops related to pioneer America, which means they cannot put Disney characters and toys or items with plastic parts.
Even though there have been many cultural changes since the festival’s era, the organizers have vowed to stick with the original idea.
3. What to Enjoy at The Peddler Festival?
3.1. Entertainment
When it comes to entertainment, the Yankee Peddler Festival Canal Fulton Ohio has various events to offer, like live music, Yankee peddler mountain men.
The organizers call Master artists to keep the festival goers entertained with the live music. Along with that, there are also some dramas performed by them which are mainly focused on children.
There is also a storytelling event that takes place at least twice a day. The puppet shows are organized to let the young minds enjoy the earlier source of entertainment.
The lessons and demonstrations are held where you can stay for some time and watch the shows.
3.2. Food And Beverage
The sample food items and beverages offered by the Yankee Peddler Festival may vary each year. Still, some of the items that a visitor can expect to be available are Turkey legs, Lemonade, Apple Dumplings, Elephant Ears, Baked Potatoes, Blueberry Cobbler, Buckeyes, Butter mints, Caramel Corn, Cherry Cobbler, Chicken Sandwiches, Chocolate Peanut Brittle, Fudge Ham Sandwiches, Ice Cream Sundaes, Strawberry Short Cakes.
Some more things to eat and drink are Birch Beer, Cider, Creamed Chicken and Biscuits, Grilled Chicken Pita, Roast Beef Sandwiches, Stromboli, Barbecue Pork Sandwiches, Bean Soup, Chicken Wrap, Cinnamon Rolls, Pancakes, and Sausage, Donuts, Onion Rings, Pickles, Funnel Cakes, Wood Fired Pizza, and many more.
All we can say is that this festival offers a lot of options to try.
4. What Should You Know Before Visiting?
Reaching the Yankee Peddler Festival. The Yankee Peddler Festival Canal Fulton Ohio’s complete address is Clay’s Park Resort, 13190 Patterson Street NW, North Lawrence, Ohio, 44666.
Clay’s Park is located on the south of Canal Fulton, Ohio, and entrances of both State Routes 93 and 21. There are signboards available for guiding the visitors to the festival location as they arrive near Canal Fulton.
Entry Tickets Information
The prizes of the entry tickets may vary with the time. But as per the current data, the prizes are as such:
- Adults between the age of 12 to 59 years need to pay $10 as entry fees.
- For seniors with 60+ age, it is $9.
- Children that are 6 to 12 years old can enter the park by paying $3.
- The 5 years old or younger children can get entry into the festival for free.
The tickets can be purchased at any of the festival’s entry gates. The payment can be made either using cash or a personal check. Currently, they do not accept payments through debit or credit cards.
Visitors are advised to arrive at the festival with a sufficient amount of cash to prevent any inconvenience as the nearest ATM from Clay’s Park is in Canal Fulton.
Even the visitors can purchase the tickets in advance from the Yankee Peddler Festival website and may get a discount of a significant amount.
The organizers have restricted the entry of pets into the festival. It may be sad for some festival goers, but that’s true.
The visitors also need to know that bottled water will only be provided in cups by the food purveyors. This is an initiative to reduce plastic waste, which we all know needs to be tackled in the current world.
Another reason for this is to retain the authenticity of the pioneer America that existed for about 200 years as much as possible since there were no plastic bottles in those days.
The water is also available in the spigots on the grounds, which come from a well and is potable. Visitors don’t need to worry about the purity of the water as it meets all Ohio regulations for purity.
They can even bring a bottle of water from their home to the Yankee Peddler Festival.
The tradition of the Yankee Peddler Festival Canal Fulton, Ohio, has continued since 1972. It will continue for years to entertain visitors and provide a glimpse of the colonial days.
It offers them entertainment in the form of live music, dramas, puppet shows, and many food items and beverages to try. All these things can keep the visitors of the festival engaged.
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Last Updated on by NamitaSoren
