{"id":193501,"date":"2025-06-01T20:53:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T01:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=193501"},"modified":"2025-06-02T20:55:41","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T01:55:41","slug":"vws-50th-annual-peony-festival-set-for-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/06\/01\/vws-50th-annual-peony-festival-set-for-this-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"Peony Festival set for this weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the Golden Jubilee \u2013 the 50th<\/sup> annual Peony Festival \u2013 and it\u2019s happening this Friday and Saturday, June 6-7, in downtown Van Wert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things will get underway with a craft and vendor fair at Fountain Park from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, and Food Truck Alley, featuring 13 food vendors, will be open for business from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., making it a perfect choice for lunch or dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the kids, children\u2019s inflatables will be up and running from 12-8 p.m. Friday and face painting will be available from 12-2 p.m. in the children\u2019s tent, and and a meet-and-greet with Queen Jubilee Avery Altenburger and her court will be held at the children\u2019s tent, which will also be the site of games, activities and prizes from 3-8 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Peony Festival typically draws a big crowd to downtown Van Wert, <\/em>and this year’s festival, the Golden Jubilee, should be no exception. Bob Barnes photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Peony Beer Garden will be open from 1-10 p.m. Friday and car show registration will be held from 3:30-6 p.m. on Main St. The Peony Festival Car Show is scheduled for 4-8:30 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Peony Cafe will be open from 4-8 p.m. Friday, and carnival games and putt putt golf will be offered from 4-9 p.m. Kim Hohman\u2019s Danceworks will perform at 5 p.m. at the pavilion, and the first Feel Good Fridays concert of 2025 will begin at 7:30 p.m. with the Heart tribute band Barracuda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things will get underway earlier on Saturday, with a children\u2019s fishing derby at Camp Clay from 8:30-10:30 a.m. and the craft and vendor fair will open at 9 a.m. at Fountain Park and run until 8 p.m. At 9:30, Queen Jubilee Avery Altenburger and her court will perform at the pavilion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In terms of more kids\u2019 activities, a children\u2019s bike rodeo (ages 3-14) will take place at the corner of Jefferson and W. Central Ave. from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m., and a children\u2019s chalk art contest will begin at 11 a.m. in the children\u2019s tent. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., kids Power Wheels racing will occur, and children\u2019s activities and inflatables will be available from 12-4 p.m. on Central Ave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carnival games and putt putt golf will be offered from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Peony Beer Garden and Food Truck Alley will be open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A local favorite, the \u201cLancers of Steel\u201d \u2013 the Lincolnview High School steel drum band \u2013 will perform at 1 p.m. at the pavilion and parade lineup will begin at 3 p.m.at the Northwest State Community College parking lot and the Grand Parade itself is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. on Main St. Longtime Van Wert County residents Jerry and Marcia Etzler will serve as grand marshals. After the parade, DJ music will be offered at Fountain Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 7 p.m. parade winners will be announced at the pavilion and the grand prize drawing will be held with 1<\/sup>\/<\/em>2<\/sub> of 1<\/sup>\/<\/em>2<\/sub> steer with processing by Rode\u2019s Meats. Tickets are $10 and are available at the information booth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 7:30 p.m., free SINGO! will take place at Fountain Park and at 9 p.m., the Peony Festival Golden Jubilee \u201cLight Up the Night\u201d drone show will take place over Fountain Park and Eggerss Stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor It is the Golden Jubilee \u2013 the 50th annual Peony Festival \u2013 and it\u2019s happening this Friday and Saturday, June 6-7, in downtown Van Wert. Things will get underway with a craft and vendor fair at Fountain Park from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, and Food Truck Alley, featuring 13 food […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-04 19:04:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193501"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":193555,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193501\/revisions\/193555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}