The Clifton Music & Arts Festival returns to the Village of Clifton Friday and Saturday, Aug. 28 and 29. As in years past, the festival will feature artisan and food vendors, a beer tent, kids’ activities, music performances and demonstrations, including from Ethera fire dancers, pictured at a past festival. (Submitted photo)
Clifton Music and Arts Festival returns this weekend
- Published: August 27, 2026
The Village of Clifton is preparing once again to fill its streets with music, food, dancing and handmade art.
The Clifton Gorge Music & Arts Festival returns Friday and Saturday, Aug. 28–29, bringing more than 50 artisan vendors, about a dozen food vendors and a full slate of live music and dance demonstrations to the village. Vendors and the beer tent open at 4 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday, with music continuing until 11 p.m. both nights.
Last year’s festival marked the first time the News had checked in on the event in several years; this year, organizers said the annual festival will continue along similar lines.
“Really, it’s just a little more of the same this year,” organizer Paula Lazorski told the News this week. “We mix up the bands every year, and we try to stay local.”
This year’s musical lineup includes several returning acts and a few that have been away from the festival for a while. Friday will feature Comstock Lode, Nasty Bingo and The Temps; Saturday’s lineup includes One More Time Swing Band, FinTan, Devil’s Backbone, Rose City Riot, The Hoppers and The Fries.
Dance and performance demonstrations will punctuate the music throughout both days, including Sayaw FilipinOH, performing a variety of dance styles representative of the Philippines on Friday; and, on Saturday, Gem City Cloggers, Dayton Celtic Academy, Middle Eastern dance group Troupe Roja, Springfield-based square dance group Cardinal Squares and Ethera fire dancers.
Friday will include a Cruise-In from 4–8 p.m. along Clay Street near the Clifton Opera House. A kids’ activity area will offer crafts, face painting and lawn games both days, with story time every half-hour from 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Saturday.
Among the food offerings will again be traditional soup beans — a small link between the current festival and the community event from which it grew.
“That’s how it all started,” organizer Anthony Satariano said.
The festival’s roots stretch back to 1970, when Yellow-Springs-transplant-to-Clifton Harold Stancliff launched “Old Weird Harold Days,” a precursor to the modern festival. Stancliff and his wife, Clara, were remembered for cooking soup beans in large iron kettles that simmered through the night.
Local history remains close at hand this year as the festival again unfolds around two historic village buildings under renovation: the Clifton Opera House and former Clifton Schoolhouse. As the News reported last year, both buildings are undergoing significant improvements via state grants.
Festival organizer Sue Chasnov said food vendors will again rely on their own generators, as exterior electricity at the schoolhouse — where vendors typically plug in — has not yet been restored.
Anyone driving down SR 343 past the Clifton Opera House this week will see it in a visible stage of work, as the ground behind the building has been dug out to replace piping. Recently, construction crews have reinforced floors and the building’s roof; still ahead are new seating, sound equipment and a full audiovisual system.
Since the Opera House’s closure for renovations, performances have been booked at nearby Clifton United Presbyterian Church. Completion for repairs at both sites were originally projected for December 2026, though Lazorski said they’ve recently been given word that the Opera House will likely not be ready for bands already booked for February.
“Structurally, it’s going to be better than it’s been forever, and so it’s worth the wait,” she said.
For the schoolhouse, Clifton Village Council members — which include Lazorski and Satariano — are looking ahead to renewed rental use there once work is complete.
“[The work] will breathe life back into these old buildings and our town in general,” Satariano said, adding that funds raised by the upcoming Clifton Gorge Music & Arts Festival will help maintain both historic structures into the future.
Lazorski estimated that last year’s festival netted around 3,500 visitors — much smaller than other area festivals such as Street Fair, which regularly brings in around 30,000, or Waynesville’s Sauerkraut Festival, which brings in about 300,000 — but said she believes its small stature is why it remains a local favorite.
“I think people like it because there’s still room to stroll around,” she said.
For more information on the upcoming festival, go to http://www.villageofclifton.com or leave a message at 937-342-2175.
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