| ComFest | |
|---|---|
 The 2007 ComFest logo, designed by Jason Kroninger | |
| Status | active |
| Genre | festivals |
| Frequency | Annually |
| Venue | Goodale Park |
| Location(s) | Columbus, Ohio |
| Coordinates | 39°58′31″N83°0′24″W / 39.97528°N 83.00667°W |
| Country | United States |
| Years active | 51–52 |
| Inaugurated | 1972 |
| Website | www |
ComFest (officially The Community Festival) is a free, non-corporate, [1] music and arts annual festival currently held each June at Goodale Park [2] in the Victorian Village area of Columbus, Ohio.
The festival bills itself as "The Party with a Purpose". [3] To accomplish this goal, the festival relies on community members to work together in the planning and operation of the festival serving on committees and work teams including clean-up and recycling, safety and first aid, entertainment, street fair, and the "World Peace Rocks Forever Committee".
The festival was first held in 1972 [1] as a showcase for a collection of community organizations including the Columbus Free Press , Free Health Clinic, Food Co-op, Tenants Union, Crisis Hotline, and Recycling Center. The festival continues to provide a forum for alternative lifestyles and collective activity.
Beer from the Columbus Brewing Company is sold in large, colorful mugs [1] to fund the cost of the festival itself and to raise money for community projects and grants. All tips from the beer booths go to homeless shelters.
The 45th ComFest was held June 23–25, 2017. [4] Its theme was "The people united will never be defeated." The featured organization was Community Refugee & Immigration Services; the honored artist was fiddler and singer Megan Palmer. [4]
The 2019 ComFest was held June 28–30. [2]
The 48th ComFest will go virtual for the first time in 2020, as most live events were cancelled caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 50th ComFest returned to Goodale Park June 24–26, 2022.
The 51st ComFest was held June 23–25, 2023.
Columbus is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest after Chicago, and the third-most populous U.S. state capital after Phoenix, Arizona and Austin, Texas. Columbus is the county seat of Franklin County; it also extends into Delaware and Fairfield counties. It is the core city of the Columbus metropolitan area, which encompasses ten counties in central Ohio. It had a population of 2,138,926 in 2020, making it the largest metropolitan area entirely in Ohio and 32nd-largest metro area in the U.S.
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Harrison West is a historic urban neighborhood located northwest of downtown Columbus, Ohio. It sits on several blocks along the Olentangy River and includes the western part of the Near Northside Historic District, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. The character of the neighborhood is similar to Victorian Village, which sits just to the east and is more well-known.
Goodale Park is a public park in the Victorian Village area of Columbus, Ohio. It was donated to the city in 1851 by Lincoln Goodale. For a few months during the Civil War, it was a staging area for Union troops known as Camp Jackson. ComFest, a large, free, multi-day, non-corporate, music and arts annual festival, is held in the park in June.
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