Only 10 years ago, Main Street Ravenna collaborated with Main Street Kent to develop its own summer art & wine festival. Fast forward a decade later, the ART on Main Festival has become an annual summer tradition, having just celebrated its 10th anniversary last Saturday afternoon on Main Street in downtown Ravenna.
“We are really excited for this to be a big year for our 10th year,” said Main Street Ravenna secretary and ART of Main chairwoman Brooke Bolevich. “This is our nice kick-off of the summer. We do it the second week in June every year, so people are familiar with the dates. We love getting people downtown to see what amazing businesses we have, and we have some fun with the live music, drink some wine and see all of the amazing local artists.”
In the annual summer festival’s 10th year, Bolevich said that there was 15% increase in local vendor and small business participation compared to last year. Since inheriting the responsibilities of chairing the event four years ago, Bolevich said that one of her primary goals has been to increase business participation.
Over 60 local vendors purchased a booth on Main Street, displaying their personal crafts, including paintings, jewelry, glassblowing and metal work.
In addition to the City of Ravenna being the hub of Portage County, Bolevich said that the City has developed an artistic flair.
“I feel that we have a lot of diversity here compared to some of the other areas in Portage County and with diversity comes a whole slew of different talents and different abilities that people have,” she added.
In addition to the local crafters who attend the event, Bolevich also highlighted the wine-tasting, as three separate local wineries participated, McAlpine Meadery, Salvage Meadery and Ravenna’s own West Main Winery.
“It is really what this event was founded on so we sell wine tickets, you can get two-ounce samples and you can try as many of the different meads and wines across the three wineries that you’d like,” noted Bolevich.
Bolevich said that Main Street Ravenna’s initial goal was to find a new tradition to introduce to the City of Ravenna and contacted Main Street Kent to draw inspiration from.
She acknowledged that Main Street Ravenna’s plans were for the festival to be mostly a wine event with the art being a side benefit but over the last several years, it has been the artistry that has become the main draw.
“We were finding that by being a weekend in the summer, many kids were coming to this event because their parents were coming and they had nothing to do here so we wanted to slowly transition this to become a generational event,” Bolevich added. “There are things for everyone to do so that is why we focused a little more on the art and a little less on the wine, but the wine is still integral to what we are doing today.”
Entertainment for the children included live musical performances by several local bands plus the addition of several food trucks along Main Street. She noted that some booths featured art done by the children, not just from the Ravenna School District but several districts throughout Portage County,
Bolevich said that the majority of the vendors who purchased a booth at the event were local crafters throughout the Portage County area but also vendors from Pennsylvania and Cincinnati.
“We encourage people from all over the county, all over the state, to come and join us,” she said. “Not just the businesses and the vendors that are here right on Main Street, so we try to make sure that this is a county-wide event, that is why invite all of the schools throughout the entire county, not just the ones right here in downtown Ravenna.”
As the annual summer festival has completed its 10th year, Bolevich spoke highly of the economic growth in downtown Ravenna, as more and more small businesses are taking root, playing a big role in revitalizing the City.
“It is more than just art, food & wine sales,” she said. “It is about bringing the community together to show what we can do and what is right here in our backyard that you might be missing.”
