About The Festival
The Ohio Pawpaw Festival is a service mark of Chris Chmiel. In 1999, Chris, along with members of the Albany Community Development Corporation and the Albany Riding Club, organized and sponsored this one-day event held October 10, 1999. It rained for most of the day, but the event was still a success and a tradition was born. Highlights included judges from Better Homes and Gardens, The Washington Post and the Athens County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
In 2000 Chris again worked with a few members of the Albany Riding Club to host this one-day event Saturday September 16, 2000. Highlights from this year’s event included a grant from the Ohio Arts Council for heritage demonstrations. Judges for the festival included Sue Dawson, food editor for the Columbus Dispatch.
2001 – The Ohio Pawpaw Festival moved to Lake Snowden and this year the Ohio Pawpaw Growers Association (OPGA) became the fiscal agent. The event was a somber but still successful event due to the terrorist attacks on 9/11. We had sunny weather and people were able to talk and heal. Judges this year included Jenny Pavlasek of Ohio Magazine
2002 – This was the year the festival became a two-day event and again, the weather was beautiful the entire weekend. Our judges this year included John Marra, WSAZ News, Leslie Lilly, The Foundation of Appalachia Ohio and Ted Lee, freelance food writer for the New York Times, etc
2003 – This year’s judges included Fred Dailey, Director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture, Suzanne Martinson, Food Writer from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette and Amy Viny, food writer from the Cleveland area.
2004 – This was the year that Hurricane Ivan dumped 5 inches of rain the day before the festival. High water stopped visitors from attending. This year’s judges include Ohio State House Representative Jimmy Stewart, sponsor of a bill to make the pawpaw the official state fruit of Ohio. The Rarely Herd played on Sunday. Green Energy Ohio has an energy tent at the festival.
2005 – Pawpaw Green Man logo. Mary Lou Suzko food writer was a judge.
2006 – The 8th Annual Ohio Pawpaw Festival saw a brief change in organization and management when Snowville Creamery took the lead role as organizer and major sponsor. This year the Pawpaw Green Woman logo took center stage as the face of this memorable event. This year was the most successful, so much so that 15 kegs of pawpaw wheat beer were drank over two days.