Zoar Harvest Festival Offers Something For Everyone

The annual tradition that is the Zoar Harvest Festival once again returns August 7 & 8, 2010, to the Village of Zoar located in east-central Ohio.

The 37^th annual Harvest Festival features:

• One of the nation’s best Antiques Show and Sales, with over 60 antique dealers
• American Folk Art and Craft Show
• Antique carriage and buggy display
• Horse drawn wagon rides
• Food – Brew Tent
• Entertainment
• Opportunity to visit all of the Historic Zoar museums and buildings, including the Ohio & Erie Canal Museum, and the newly stocked Zoar Store.

Festival hours are 10-6 Saturday and 10-5 Sunday. Children’s period amusements will be located in the Zoar garden.  Overall, admission to the Harvest Festival is $6 per person; children 12 and under are free.  The ticket is good for admission to the festival all weekend.

New to the festival this year is “Hike to Harvest Festival.” For $5, you can join a one-way guided tour along the 2.9 mile towpath trail and the old Ohio & Erie Canal from Fort Laurens to the Harvest Festival in Zoar. Master blacksmith Brad Birkhimer on loan from Roscoe Village, will join the event this year to demonstrate and give a history of blacksmithing in Zoar’s historic blacksmith shop.  Carter “Butch” Boylan a broomsquire from Roscoe Village will demonstrate the art of broom making in Zoar’s Historic Wagon shop. The finished brooms will be available for purchase. A full service bakery, along with an old fashioned baking demonstration in the Zoar’s Historic Bakery is also new to the festival this year.

“Our annual festival offers something for everyone.  We invite people from all over the region to visit and rediscover Zoar,” said Zoar Community Association President Jon Elsasser.  “In addition, the historic Zoar Garden will be at it’s peak during the event.  This is the perfect opportunity to see the beautiful results of our volunteers’ and staff’s hard work.”

Founded in 1967, the Zoar Community Association strives to ensure the preservation of the historical characteristics and heritage of the Village of Zoar, Ohio, and the surrounding area, including Northern Tuscarawas County. Effective January 4, 2010, the Zoar Community Association assumed management of Zoar Village State Memorial under contract from the Ohio Historical Society.

Zoar Village was founded in 1817 by a group of about 200 German Separatists seeking escape from religious persecution in their homeland. Today, Zoar is a community of approximately 75 homes built from 1817 until the present. Many of the original homes have been preserved or restored. Find out more by visiting www.zca.org.