Akron Events

Akron’s calendar is small but two events are genuinely distinctive.

All-American Soap Box Derby — late July

Children build gravity-powered cars to strict rules and race them down a purpose-built hill, and the world championship has been held in Akron every year since 1935 apart from a wartime gap. It began as a newspaper photographer’s idea in Dayton and moved here for the topography; Derby Downs, the track at the edge of the city, was built by federal works programmes in 1936 and is still the venue. Competitors qualify through local races across the United States and a number of other countries and arrive for a week of inspection, practice and racing, with a parade and a rally attached. It is unglamorous, entirely earnest and unlike anything else, and the whole thing is run on a hillside with a grandstand and a finish-line clock.

Blossom Music Center season — June to September

The Cleveland Orchestra’s summer home sits in the Cuyahoga Valley between the two cities, with a pavilion and a large lawn; lawn tickets are inexpensive and people bring picnics.

Founders Day — June

Thousands come to Akron for the anniversary of the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous, with meetings and events across the city and the university.

Rubber City events and the Nightlight — year round

Downtown carries a small but active programme — an independent cinema, the Akron Civic Theatre in a 1929 atmospheric auditorium with a painted sky ceiling, and a summer concert series at Lock 3.

Akron Marathon — September

A route through the city and the valley, with a race series across the year.