6 Quirkiest Ohio Towns To Visit In 2025

Given its unique mix of urban and rural sprawl, Ohio is an oddity hunter's paradise. They can start their search in big cities like Cleveland, browsing the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick and other urban oddporiums, before trekking through natural wonders toward rural communities. In such backwoods towns, quirkiness is celebrated with annual festivals, many of which are upcoming in 2025. Learn when and where you can celebrate twins, Bigfoot, sauerkraut, and many other oddities during a 2025 Ohio excursion.

Twinsburg

Not only named for and partly settled by identical twins, Twinsburg also hosts the “largest annual gathering of twins in the world." You will be seeing double about two thousand times if you visit in August, when the Twins Days Festival runs for three days and draws identical and fraternal twins from across the world. Pairs have come from as far as Kenya and Japan to compete in twins contests, enter twins talent shows, and march in the Double Take Parade. Some even volunteer for medical testing, since when and where else can scientists harvest so much twins data at once? The theme of 2025's fest, which is set for August 1 to 3, is “Cheers to 50 Years!” If staying in the Akron-Cleveland metro area, you can pair Twinsburg's Twins Days Festival with North Ridgeville's Skunkfest, which might make you do a double sniff on Saturday, September 13. Yes, it involves real skunks. No, they should not stink—they are domesticated and many are de-scented.

Greenville

Ever wanted to shoot (BB) guns while dressed as a Wild West legend? Head to Greenville in late July. That is when this small Ohio city honors Annie Oakley with several days of sharpshooting and cosplaying. Aptly called the Annie Oakley Festival, its 2025 edition is to run from Friday, July 25 to Sunday, July 27 and feature the Little Miss & Mister costume contest, Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association reenactment, Kick Axe Mobile Axe Throwing tournament, fast draw competition, Annie's Memorial Shoot, and Miss Annie Oakley marksmanship contest. Greenville's obsession with Oakley is not random. She spent much of her life in the county and died in Greenville in 1926. Before, after, or during the fest, you can visit Oakley's grave at Brock Cemetery and see Oakley artifacts at the Garst Museum and the National Annie Oakley Center.

McArthur

When you think of Bigfoot, you probably do not picture that hulking creature in Ohio. Yet thousands of miles from its Pacific Northwest hotspot, Bigfoot sometimes strays—according to backwoods Ohioans and organizers/attendees of the Hocking Hills Bigfoot Festival. Previously held in Logan but set to move in August to even remoter McArthur, this event celebrates Sasquatch with an investigative game called Squatch 'N Seek; a song parody extravaganza called Squatchy-Oke; a four-wheel driving derby called the All Terrain Show; and contests for everything from Sasquatch howling to Sasquatch walking to Sasquatch beard growing.

Though undeniably unique, the Hocking Hills Bigfoot Festival may not be the quirkiest event in the region. McArthur also hosts the Vinton County Wild Turkey Festival in May, while nearby Albany celebrates the pawpaw, "North America’s largest edible native tree fruit," with the Ohio Pawpaw Festival in September.

Lisbon

A far more common fruit is celebrated in Lisbon, but it is celebrated in an eccentric way with a legendary eccentric. Each September, this Ohio village hosts the Johnny Appleseed Festival, where guests sample apple pie, apple cider, candy apples, apple ice cream, apple dumplings, apple chips, apple butter, and stories about the titular apple-seeding folk hero, real name John Chapman. Yes, Johnny Appleseed actually existed and supposedly sowed his seeds near Lisbon. He has been folklorized to a great extent, of course, so do not believe everything you hear at the Johnny Appleseed Festival (especially from the designated impersonator who sleeps in a makeshift 1800s-style cabin). But you best believe in the tastiness of the apple products. Take an apple from "Johnny" before trying the apple butter made fresh by the Stage Left Players. Then catch a show at their Trinity Playhouse.

Vermilion

Though the groundhog reigns supreme as North America's non-human weather oracle, the woolly bear caterpillar takes its place in a few offbeat locales, namely Vermilion, OH. This Lake Erie community annually hosts the Woollybear Festival, where winter weather is predicted via the coloration of the caterpillars' bands. Only about 11,000 people live in Vermilion, yet around 100,000 come to see the woolly forecast and join such activities as woollybear races, woollybear costume contests, and the Famous Woollybear Parade. Since it runs for just one day (2025's edition is set for Sunday, October 5), Vermilion's Woollybear Festival is considered the "largest one-day festival in Ohio." Stay for the whole weekend to attend the fest and see other wonders like the Vermilion Lighthouse and the Vermilion River Reservation, both of which host their own yearly events.

Waynesville

Waynesville is a village of about 2,700 people that draws around half a million visitors with two hugely quirky festivals. First is the Ohio Renaissance Festival, which runs from August to October. You read that right. Across nine weekends, more than 200,000 people get medieval in Waynesville. Each weekend has a different theme. 2025's edition is to begin with the Opening Weekend from August 30 to September 1; transition to Fantasy Weekend, Feast of Fools, Pirates Weekend, Time Travelers Weekend, Viking Weekend, Highland Weekend, and Romance Weekend through September and October; and finish with Heroes & Young Adventurers from October 25 to 26. The Ohio Renaissance Festival is so long that it overlaps for one weekend with the Ohio Sauerkraut Festival. Set to have its 55th edition on Saturday, October 11 and Sunday, October 12, the event gathers about 400,000 fans of fermented cabbage. That that many sauerkraut aficionados exist in the world, let alone in Ohio, may come as a surprise.

The year may be half over, but not the better half, at least in Ohio. Over the next several months, the Buckeye State will titillate with quirky attractions, especially in the aforementioned towns. Start in late July at Greenville's Annie Oakley Festival; move into August at Twinsburg's Twins Days Festival and McArthur's Hocking Hills Bigfoot Festival; spend September at Lisbon's Johnny Appleseed Festival and Wayne's Ohio Renaissance Festival; and enter October at Vermilion's Woollybear Festival. That is an itinerary for a weird and wonderful Ohio vacay.