Painesville Party In The Park

The Party in the Park is Ohio’s Largest Free Music Festival produced and managed by the Painesville Community Improvement Corporation a non-profit group based in Painesville and made possible by sponsorship dollars from local and regional businesses and corporations. The PPITP is a 3 day event taking place in Veterans Park in beautiful downtown Painesville, OH. During the 3 day event over 30 musical acts from Ohio and all over the US will perform on 3 stages all day long. What makes the PPITP unique is the offering of all different type of musical genres including Rock, Reggae, Blues, Bluegrass, Rock-a-Billy, Country, Motown, Indie, Ska, Jazz and more. New this year on Friday night the Party in the Park will be hosting a “Blues & Brews” night sponsored by Cleveland’s own Great Lakes Brewing Co.

The Party in the Park is not just for music lovers, the event offers events and games for the whole family including a Kids Zone for children of all ages to enjoy and a community area with many family friendly events and demonstrations. Also new this year the Party in the Park will have a Classic & Custom car show to benefit juvenile diabetes.

For the food lovers the Party in the Park has over 20 food vendors on hand offering all types of food such as pizza, gyros, elephant ears, authentic Mexican, French fries, Quaker Steak and Lube wings and much much more.

The Party in the Park is the can’t miss event of the summer, with something for everyone and best of all its FREE!

See you at the Party!

For a couple of decades Painesville Party in the Park was just like every city or village festival, BORING. The towns folks would bring their kids down and watch them tap dance on make shift stage, get their faces painted and watch the bath tub races and watermelon seed spitting contests. Each evening there might be a local rock band that may or may not have had a sound system antiquate to play an outside event.

Then in 2001 Kip Smead and Jeff Koski joined the Party in the Park committee with dreams of making The Party the largest free music festival in Northeast Ohio. The committee thought their dream was a nightmare, and would not embrace it. But the two were determined to persevere. The first year they booked one band to play in the little beer corral. (Back then beer drinkers had to be fenced in a small confined area and letting them listen to music at the same time was a scary proposition) To the committees surprise (not Kip & Jeff’s) it was a huge success. The following year 17 bands played with a professional sound company running the stages. In 2003 we went to the side-by-side stage format with 26 acts and less than eight minutes between each show. Over the last three years under the leadership of Pam Harting, Painesville Party in the Park not only became the largest free music festival in Northeast Ohio, but the largest in the whole state with 35-40 acts. Soon to be the largest in the Midwest with acts from Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, California, and all over Ohio covering almost every musical genre including Rock, Jazz, Blues, Irish, Latin, Rock-a-billy, Jam Bands, Folk, Reggae and more.

2008 brought a  new face to the committee; Jeff Koski our entertainment chairman passed the torch to Gabe Cicconetti who shares Kip and Jeff’s vision for the event. Gabe took over the entertainment chair as well as all the  marketing for the PPITP. Gabe had big shoes to fill, but it’s apparent with the acts he books for the event and the constant expansion of marketing ideas and outlets, the Party in the Park will continue to grow, becoming bigger and better than anyone could have dreamed.  With the 2009 came the most talent encompassing line up to date which helped the Party in the Park break all previous attendance records. With every year of the event comes a bigger and better line up of music and activities that promises to continue to please all those that come to the Party.

See you at the Party!