Cincinnati Events

Cincinnati’s calendar is anchored by a German festival and a baseball parade.

Oktoberfest Zinzinnati — late September

The largest Oktoberfest in the United States and, by most counts, the second largest in the world after Munich’s. It runs over a long weekend across several downtown blocks, draws several hundred thousand people, and reflects the city’s German inheritance rather than borrowing it: the brewing tradition here was German, the neighbourhood is called Over-the-Rhine, and the singing societies that supply the choirs are genuinely old. The festival opens with the tapping of a keg, includes a mass chicken dance that has held a world record, and serves an enormous quantity of bratwurst, goetta and beer. It is free to enter, thoroughly unpretentious, and one of the few American beer festivals with a real claim to lineage.

Opening Day — late March or early April

The Reds are the oldest professional baseball club in the United States, and the city marks the season’s first home game with the Findlay Market parade through downtown, schools half-empty and offices thinly staffed. It functions as an unofficial public holiday.

Bockfest — early March

Over-the-Rhine’s brewing heritage festival, opening with a parade led by a goat.

Riverfest and fireworks — Sunday of Labor Day weekend

A fireworks display fired from barges on the Ohio, watched from both banks by several hundred thousand people, which closes the riverfront and the bridges and marks the end of the summer.

Cincinnati May Festival — May

The oldest continuing choral festival in the Western Hemisphere, at Music Hall.