Ribs and more at Orrville Lions Club event Aug. 11-12
The annual Orrville Lions Club Rib and Music Fest and Car Show will feature plenty of food, music and classic cars.
The event represents the Lions Club’s lone annual fundraiser.
“Our proceeds go to scholarships to local high school kids — Orrville kids and kids at the career center,” Tammy Auble of the Lions Club said. “We gave $4,000 worth of scholarships in May to Orrville High School students.”
The rib burn-off is set for Friday and Saturday, Aug. 11-12 at West Market and Depot streets, up to North Vine. It is supported by top-level sponsors Motivated Mindset/Mosley LLC, Armstrong, Serpentini of Orrville and White’s Ford; second-tier sponsors Smith Foods, Farmers National Bank and Bell Stores; and nearly two dozen friend level sponsors.
Cooking ribs will be Swine BBQ of Medina, Jim’s BBQ, Off the Bone from Canal Winchester and Patrick’s.
Other food vendors include food trucks such as Upscale Variety (chili dogs, fries, funnel cakes and more), Conrad’s Concessions (egg rolls), and Bob’s Italian Sausage/Keating Food Enterprises and Sweeties (snow cones). American Legion will provide drinks.
There is a full music lineup set for the two days, with something for just about every taste. It starts Friday at 6:30 p.m. with Jersey the Band (Bruce Springsteen tribute), followed at 9 p.m. by Disco Inferno. Music on Saturday will start with Tyler Knipp at 2 p.m., followed at 4 p.m. by American Pride, then Easton Union Band at 6:30 p.m. and American Ride (Toby Keith tribute) at 9 p.m.
“We had in the past somebody in charge of the bands that kind of got bands that they liked,” Auble said. “The Lions Club membership increased by like 200% in the last year. So we have a great group of new people. I was in that crew that came in within the last year. They’re worker bees. They’ve done other community events. They brought in their input from other communities. They said that’s great that you liked those bands. They worked hard to get in something that’s well-rounded.”
An addition this year will be some sort of short relay races. It will include things like eat a rib or drink a beer and then run back and forth, relay-race style.
“It’s just a little filler event for in between bands,” Auble said. “I’m not sure if we’re promoting that as a kickoff to next year when we might do a 5k. It’s just basically running from one street corner to another. It’s just a little fun thing to get people involved.”
As Auble alluded, it’s possible the relays could evolve into a 5k race for more serious runners to be held in conjunction with the rib fest. These races are common with similar events and have proven a great way to get people to come for the ribs and music.
The car show is sponsored by P.S. Trophy, Bellstores and Lorson Financial. It will be held Aug. 12 from 1-4 p.m. The show is $10 for early registration and $15 for registration the day of the show. While it may be too late by the time you read this, the first 40 online preregistrations are free, courtesy of Lorson Financial.
The car show is a great way for connoisseurs of classic automobiles to gawk at all sorts of them in between racks of ribs or funnel cakes. Expect dozens of vehicles from throughout the years to be on display. The car show trophy presentations will take place at 4 p.m.
The festival will kick off at 5 p.m. on Friday. Saturday’s festivities will begin at 11 a.m. with a cornhole tournament. There will be children’s activities from 2-4 p.m.
