Clevelanders love tradition and loyally support annual events all year-round. Every month has a parade, festival or celebration that gets bigger and better each year. (Dates listed are for 2024 unless noted.)
Summer
Summer is peak outdoor festival time. Parade the Circle (June 8) celebrates cultures, art and fantasy in its own unique way. A non-commercial parade with bigger-than-life puppets, outrageously gorgeous costumes and always a few quirky surprises, begins at 12:00 pm (noon) at the north entrance of the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) and turns University Circle into a wild dream.
Sponsored by LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland, Pride in the CLE (June 1) begins at Public Square. Marchers gather at Mall B and C for the Pride Festival with its health and wellness, village, live entertainment, food trucks and vendors, community resources, job boards, activist opportunities and more. Lots of banners and lots of encouragement to “come as your real self.”
The nationally recognized Tri-C JazzFest (June 20-22) features nearly 500 artists from Africa, New Orleans and your own Cleveland neighborhood performing in indoor and outdoor concerts. Check out the street performers, shopping and the refreshment tent at this year’s 45th festival.
Fall
The Cleveland Rowing Foundation’s 28th Annual Head of the Cuyahoga Regatta (September 21) can trace its roots to 1989. Now one of the top 10 single-day regattas in the United States, this competition leaves many other cities in its wake.
Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 through October 15) is a constant blur of bright colors, happy sounds, fantastic murals and cultural activities involving several neighborhoods, institutions and businesses.
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo presents two late summer/fall events that are family favorites. The Asian Lantern Festival features large-scale lantern displays, culturally inspired cuisine and interactive and themed areas. One of Cleveland’s best after-dark activities, it celebrates its 7th year in 2024. Boo at the Zoo in October is the place for trick-or-treating, movies and a great opportunity to wear that tiger costume.
Winter
Brite Winter (February 22, 2025) is one of the region’s fastest growing annual celebrations. A wide variety of Northeast Ohio musicians, artists, street performers and others dare you to come outside and enjoy Cleveland’s creative side. And that’s despite any lake-effect snow, chill factor, hail or freezing rain.
The “monsters” look like a cross between a Shaggy Dog standing on two legs and a Yeti wearing a red and white tie. The costumed characters are a little hard to explain, but everyone loves them and appreciates that they scare away winter and welcome spring. The 13th Annual Cleveland Kurentovanje (March 1, 2025) is celebrated at the Slovenian National Home and with a parade through the St. Clair-Superior neighborhood.
Cleveland’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade is technically in winter by the calendar, but we always pretend it is the start of spring. Held, of course, on March 17 every year, the parade is one of the best and biggest of its kind in the country. The first Cleveland parade we know of was held in 1842. Lots of honor guards, pipes and drums corps, Irish dance schools, voluntary infantry, unions, Irish social clubs, parishes and more. Everyone is Irish on St. Paddy’s Day.
Spring
In 2025, The International Cleveland Film Fest (March 26-April 5, 2025) celebrates its 49th year of showing a marathon of documentaries, foreign films, shorts and avant-garde entries. More than 100,000 people from across the country come to Playhouse Square to see the power of film firsthand.
The traditional dragon dance always gets the most respect from every generation who attends the Cleveland Asian Festival in May. But there is much more to this event, including the Asian-Pop Dance Competition (featuring Nepali Hip Hop and Bollywood/India dancers and others), martial arts demos, and food and drink you must try. Think grass jelly drink, Korean shaved ice, mango sticky rice and Vietnamese iced coffee.
The Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival marks 45 years in Cleveland in 2025, now the largest Indian Classical music festival outside of India. Dance, musical competitions and traditional goods are offered.
Dyngus Day Cleveland (always the Monday after Easter) celebrates its 15th year of Polish-American culture in Northeast Ohio in 2025. This giant polka party, with more than 45,000 people), is held in the Gordon Arts District with paczki, pussy willows and kishka sausage. With a goal to eventually celebrate all of Cleveland’s Eastern European cultures, this festival is on the right track.
