Barberton’s Lake Anna Park will burst into color on September 26-27 as the city’s beloved Mum Festival returns for its 36th year, drawing what event organizers estimate could be tens of thousands of visitors to see more than 1 million chrysanthemum blooms hand-planted around the lake. The free, two-day event runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on September 26 and September 27, with family activities, live music, food trucks and even a water ski show rounding out the schedule.
The festival, organized by the Barberton Parks & Recreation Department and the city’s parks maintenance team, draws visitors to Lake Anna Park, according to Cleveland.com. The outlet reports the event typically attracts roughly 28,000 to 32,000 people annually, according to the event website, and this year’s lineup includes roving performers, canoe races, and a mix of local craft and commercial vendors alongside the food trucks.
This year’s display theme, called “Mums in Bloom for the Red, White and Blue,” celebrates the 250th anniversary of the United States with floral arrangements shaped into a waving American flag and a bald eagle, according to Ohio Magazine. The magazine notes that city staff design an entirely new thematic layout for the garden beds every autumn, with the mums themselves germinating in the park through the summer months until they reach full bloom in late September.
Months of Planning Behind the Blooms
The scale of the display doesn’t happen overnight. Planning for the annual floral installation begins each December under city designer Brian Coffman, and the plants themselves arrive in mid-June to be hand-planted by city crews over the course of three days, per the same Ohio Magazine account. That kind of lead time reflects just how much agricultural coordination goes into a festival that’s ultimately given away for free…