After two-year hiatus Family Days festival returns to Streetsboro

Starting tonight, Streetsboro's City Park will host the return of Family Days, a four-day festival featuring live music, a beer garden, food vendors, and activities for all ages.

The festival, now in its 20th year, has been on hiatus since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and organizers Rob and Von Starkey are happy to be bringing the fun back to Streetsboro.

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Festivities will commence at 3:45 p.m. today with an opening ceremony honoring American military and emergency personnel.

"We have the American Legion and the VFW doing a flag raising," said Rob Starkey, vice president of the event. Amanda Joy Hall will sing the national anthem, he said.

Attendees can enjoy the dunk tank, present for all four days of the festival, or, provided they're 21 years of age or older, a drink from the beer garden.

Anyone who's ever wanted to smash up a car will have the opportunity provided to them by local towing company Gateway Recovery.

"Basically," Rob said, "for a minimal charge you can take a sledgehammer to a car and beat it up a little bit."

The band Random Strangers, "a high-energy country band that plays a mix of early 90's to today's top country music," according to the festival's website, will be performing this evening beginning at 7 p.m.

The party resumes on Friday at 4 p.m. The evening's entertainment will be provided by Southern Cross, a cover band whose catalog spans from classic country to classic rock , starting at 6:00 p.m. After their set is over a Journey cover band called E5C4P3 (Escape) will play until the festival closes at 11 p.m.

On Saturday, the festival will begin at noon, starting with a workshop for children hosted by Home Depot. A donut eating contest and a pizza eating contest are on the schedule as well.

Starting at 1 and ending at 5 p.m., there will be a touch-a-truck event for kids.

According to the Streetsboro Family Days Facebook page, "Families will have the opportunity to explore various vehicles from the Streetsboro Police Department, Streetsboro Fire Department, Streetsboro City Service Department, Gateway Recovery & Towing, and University Hospitals helicopter. Provided the helicopter is not on scene runs, it is scheduled to arrive around 1:30 and take off at 2:30 p.m."

The night's entertainment will be provided first by Follow the Sun, a cover band playing songs from multiple eras and genres.

At 9 p.m., 7 Bridges, a band billed as "The Ultimate Eagles Experience" will take the stage. Immediately following their first set, there will be a fireworks show, after which 7 Bridges will return to finish out the evening.

Sunday's schedule of events starts with a car, truck, and bike show at 9 a.m., followed by a "Paw ‘Pet’acular" dog show at the pavilion in the park.

A band called the Spazmatics, an 80's New Wave tribute band, will be playing from 1 to 2:30 p.m., after which Jungle Bob will hold an animal show featuring reptiles, bugs, and mammals. The festival is anticipated to end approximately at 6:00 in the evening.

A veritable smorgasbord of food will be provided throughout the weekend by a number of different vendors.

Byers Concessions will be at the park providing funnel cakes, deep fried ice cream, and steak sandwiches, and other other standard fair food, said Von Starkey, president of the event.

A barbecue vendor called Blowing Smoke will be there serving up pulled pork, said Rob. Dom's Wood Fired Pies will be dishing out wood fired pizza to fair-goers.

Regrettably, there will be no rides at this year's festival.

"Our ride vendor pulled out on us less than two months [before the event]," Rob said. Luckily, the Starkeys were able to pull together a few other things to make up for the lack of rides.

"Touch-a-truck was one to bring in the interaction with the kids," said Von.

Chuck Kocisko, Von's father, started planning Streetsboro Family Days in 2001, holding the first one in 2003 during a rain-soaked weekend.

A full schedule of events can be found on the Streetsboro Family Days website. 

Streetsboro City Park located at  8970 Kirby Lane.

Contact reporter Derek Kreider at dkreider@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Fun for all in Streetsboro as Family Days festival returns