Dennison Railroad Festival returns May 29-31

Everyone loves attending festivals, but for families the cost of having fun might keep them away. This year the Dennison Railroad Festival Committee is working to offer more free activities.

“Our goal is to create as many free experiences for the community as we can because we know times are hard,” said Michael Brindley, a member of the festival committee. “They have to pay for a ride wristband and things like that, so we try to make all of the extras absolutely free.”

In addition to free concerts, festival guests can have free entertainment on the midway by Glovation Walking Circus on Friday and Saturday, a free kiddie tractor pull on Friday and more.

Brindley is excited about the walking circus.

“They’ll be strolling the midway doing close-up things like juggling and hula hoops and very technical things,” Brindley said. “This is our first year having something like that.”

The committee added another activity.

“This year we also have a petting zoo coming, and it will be entirely free,” Brindley said. “The kids can come in and pet and play and feed the animals. It won’t cost anything.”

The zoo provider may have an unusual baby animal available for photos, but that would be the only paid zoo activity.

Ride ticket prices will be announced on the day of the festival on the Facebook page.

For more information on all the festival activities, the committee will post every day leading up to the festival on Facebook at Dennison Railroad Festival.

A country singer with Ohio roots, Julia Neville will perform on the railcar stage May 30 at 8 p.m. Her song “Six Strings Are Hard on Diamond Rings” won her the Young Country Single of the Year from the National Traditional Country Music Association.

Neville has performed in Nashville and many shows in Ohio and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Brindley is looking forward to the talent show on Thursday night with host Marc Davis. Sign-up is online, and participants can sign up as late as the day of the talent show. However, they have to be checked in at the festival no later than 5:45 p.m.

The board members of the 2025 festival are Brindley, Beth DiDonato, Derek Kohler, Sissy Coen, Tracie Ayers, Tina Newman, Aron Brindley, Helen Borland and Roger Deardorff.

“We’re a working board. Each of us have a very specific task that we do, and they take all week,” Brindley said.

The board is already looking forward to next year.

“We’re always looking for new things that we can do. We’ve already got some big ideas for next year’s 250th anniversary of the United States, so we’re really looking for that next level,” Brindley said.

Festival schedule

May 29: Midway opens at 5 p.m., talent competition at the gazebo stage at 6 p.m. and The Next band at the gazebo stage at 7 p.m.