Mohican Bigfoot Festival set for Sept. 20 in downtown Loudonville

The first Mohican Bigfoot Festival will take place Saturday, Sept. 20 in downtown Loudonville.

The event will kick off at 9 a.m. with vendors in Central Park and a full speaker schedule in Loudonville’s historic Ohio Theatre Opera House. Several food trucks also will be in attendance.

Throughout the day there will be many special make-and-take children’s craft activities, with Morgan McFarren’s Precious Party Princessing. There will be a Walk Like a Sasquatch Contest hosted by festival disc jockey Brian Wolf of WolfRockRadio.com. Attendees can take a picture with a life-sized 9-foot Bigfoot at Four Season’s Flowers and Gifts.

Local stores have loaded up on Bigfoot merchandise, and hand-picked vendors will carry Sasquatch treasures.

A free Bigfoot bonfire event will take place Friday, Sept. 19 at Lost Horizons campground on Wally Road. Witnesses and investigators will discuss their experiences, and BFRO investigators will be in attendance to answer questions. There also will be a thermal drone demonstration at dark inside the campground and along the river.

An all-day pass is available for $20 to see the speakers. A VIP option is available for $50, with reserved seating in the first three rows of the theater. That also includes a festival T-shirt and a festival poster signed by all the presenters. Tickets can be purchased at www.theohiotheatre.com.

Speakers will start at 9:30 a.m. with Angie Heimberger kicking off the event, then turning it over to MC Larry Sidwell, BFRO investigator from West Virginia.

At 10 a.m. Suzanne Ferencak and Mark Maisel from “The Back 80” will speak about experiences on Ferencak’s property in rural Loudonville.

At 11:30 a.m. outdoorsman Rob Rodabaugh will discuss looking for Bigfoot from a canoe on Ohio’s waterways.

At 1 p.m. Bea Mills will discuss the 2016 investigation that launched her book, “Methodology of Madness,” and earned her the title of 2019 Bigfooter of the Year.

At 2:30 p.m. Shane Grove and The Judge of the "From the Shadows" podcast will host a live town hall event, where they take witness stories and discuss all things Bigfoot.

At 4 p.m. keynote speaker Matt Pruitt from the podcast, “Bigfoot and Beyond with Cliff and Bobo,” will present the latest research from his book, “The Phenomenal Sasquatch.” Pruitt's key insight into witness reactions will be explained, along with a deep dive into many aspects of current Sasquatch documentation and evidence collection.