Climbing, Concerts, and a Cold One… It’s Scioto Fest!

Scioto Fest has grown over the years into a huge Metro Parks event, and Friends of Metro Parks has been through them all! Scioto Fest originally started as the “Climbing Festival,” a fun way to support the Scioto Audubon Climbing Community, and get a little something extra out of the event. We served beer and merch at the first climbing festivals, which we continue to do now, but at a much larger scale.

Scioto Fest started small, but as we started to gain traction, we introduced music, vendors, and beer partners, including a special beer made just for Scioto Fest as a collaboration between Friends of Metro Parks and local breweries.

Our first foray into brewery partnerships was with Land Grant. For Scioto Fest, they made they made “Outpost,” a Rustic Honey Lager made with Metro Parks harvested honey! From there, we moved on to “Wandering Monarch,” a collaboration beer between Land Grant and Nocterra. This year, after Nocterra moved in right next door to Scioto Audubon Metro Park, we got the collab beer “On Belay”

This year, we were excited to have performances by Later Gator, A Band Called Dreamland, and Ramblewood. There were over 100 people who pitched tents and camped under the stars, and we introduced more vendors than ever to our Friday and Saturday vendors aisle. This is a huge change from the early years of the climbing festival, where we had a couple hours to climb the wall, and a spotify playlist doing all the work.

We want to thank all of the volunteers who came out to serve beer, sell tokens and t-shirts, and help staff the climbing portion of the event!

We are excited to keep up the collaborations and partnerships between Friends of Metro Parks and local breweries and businesses. If you own a local business and you are interested in partnering with Friends of Metro Parks, please reach out to friends@metroparks.net.