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Years ago there was a large fountain in Bicentennial Park, I think the splash pad replaced it. But it was a great fountain with lots of water spraying out of it and the pool around it was a large diameter. Which made it a great thing for folks to sit on. You felt the cooling mist coming off the main fountain head on your body, and people probably dipped their toes in the water too. If there was any breeze in the air, the mist went out farther. People strolled around the pool, and hung out around it.

I think this is a relatively new festival,....I recall it or a similar one is held on the downtown "COMMONS" area,...which has lots of green grass, to sit on and umbrella tables. In the blistering heat of this particular weekend, it looks like a real challenge to walk, sit or hang out down there. But alas, I'm old now, and this weather is not safe for me to be out in. Mid 90s, both days,...No thanks. Is there a water feature, a fountain,....a splash pad, anywhere in sight?

People still live in some. Which to me is pretty neat.

🎶Doo da doo da🎵

All the fallout nerds going “Oh my feels” Y'all 😂 I'm a fallout nerd too but I'm Here to see how much we changed. Tiny closets but all those huge “modern elections”. Clothing was a better quality. No need to have 20 dresses and 20 dress shirts, etc. The kitchens too, way small, the cupboards and no real counter space. How did they bake all those homemade cakes and treats? But they did. That huge thing in the laundry room, what was that? its so odd to me we really don't need that many things to live a comfortable life but yet here we are paying $260K+ mortgages on homes we really don't spend enough time in due to working to pay for said homes. Yet, I like not outwardly being discriminated against because of my race. For me the “good old days” were the 2010’s 😅

The Ohio Village is always looking for volunteers from our community to help keep the village looking clean and orderly. One summer, maybe it was in 2002, I volunteered for 2 days. The village wasn't always open to the public. The 2 days I worked, myself, and about 6 other folks, strangers to me, but all able bodied, nice people, were assigned various tasks. I think we were given soda pop and a light snack for our efforts, at a break time. We didn't work more than 6 hours total. Two of us were assigned to each building. Our tasks weren't labor intensive. We swept the floors, dusted the displays, organized some props, & cleaned the windows. We were given all the cleaning & dusting cloths, and window cleaner, brooms and dustpans. Most of the buildings are a single story, with a fake 2nd story that can't be gotten in to. It was a fun experience, and I enjoyed imagining what it would have been like to become a historic re-enactor. My background as a printer, where I set lead type, by hand, would have come in handy, and I would have loved explaining that old technique, that was still being used when I was a teenager. Back then, I thought that was going to become my adult life employment.

In the early 1980s, I knew 3 local Artisans, who were employed by the Ohio Village, as historic "re-enactors". They got to wear period clothing, provided by the Village, which I think was dated to the late 1800s. These artisans, were local craft-artists, who were making their art, using old techniques and materials. Two, were a married couple, who worked in Tin. They made household items out of tin. Tin was used for cookie cutters, molds for making candles, baking tins, and candle holders for tables, and ones that were used by individuals, before the invention of electric lighting. People walked around their homes at night, with a hand held, single candle, holder, made of tin, that had a built-in, reflector. And I knew another fellow who worked in the wood shop, in the village. He may have also worked as the town's Blacksmith.

Ohio Village recently announced they will closed for a couple of years during an extensive renovation project. The village is kind (cute),....the buildings aren't fully "to-scale", in terms of real buildings. They are partial buildings with fewer rooms. It's too bad their benefactors didn't scoop up some of the vintage buildings around Columbus, that had been slated for demolition, since the 1970s & 80s. Real Victorian homes throughout Old Town-East,....had been crumbling for years. If they had better funding they could have saved them and had them moved to this site.

One fellow I've known since the 1980s is Greg Phelps,....He was one of the earliest ART CARS, artists. I was an exhibiting Art Furniture artists, from that same period of time, and he worked for The Ohio Designer Crafts group. I was in an exhibit they presented in 1985 as a (Fine Artist Furniture Maker) They are a supporting organization for all Ohio crafts-people. They have a gallery (or used to) on West 5th Ave. near Grandview. They sponsor The Annual Winter-Fair, a showcase of all Ohio craft artists. It is an exhibit, usually held at one of the exposition halls, on the grounds of The Ohio State Fair, here in Columbus. Greg has been glueing fun junk to his cars for years. He is very visible and his cars are at all the other events here in C-bus and around the country. His car has skulls, toys, mirrors, and often dozens of female mannequin legs, protruding from his car's roof. You can't not laugh when you see his car tooling around own town. I think he's on his 4th Art Car, he showcases his car and the other local car artist's, at all the local events, like COMFEST & THE HOT TIMES IN OLD TOWN EAST, and many other fun events around town. I used to make, sell, & exhibit whimsical Art Furniture, that I exhibited around Columbus and all of Ohio, in the 1980s & 1990s.

I Think This Show was Short but Overall it was a Great Show! I Hope They Bring Back Armed Forces Medley and Living in American By James brown and Needed More Armed Forces Songs. If The Display Show was 2 Minutes Longer that been good! i Hope Next Year be as long as 2022 2019 Year! Soundtrack Rating: 8.2/10 Fireworks Display: 9.7/10

I had one of those old coke machines. I gave it to the towns boy scout meeting place. I have a few of the bed spreads. Didn't know how old they were.😊

Considering Columbus just legalized WEED,....is there any marijuana based groups?

I should participated, back in the day when I owned a vintage 150cc motor scooter. I drove it for pleasure every summer for 33 years. I could have decorated it or something.

This inspired members of the Gay community to create "The Flagots" a team of flag twirlers, and the marching Fidels,....dressed like Fidel Castro. And the suburban lawn mower brigade. Not sure if they still exist.

This is one event I only attended in the earliest days when it first started. Lots of sight gags and silliness. I'm all for it,....and have a theatrical streak in myself, however I have never participated. I like that it gets all the communities involved. One year things went a little south, as the parade viewers along the route began pelting the marchers with donuts. It started out friendly, then turned ugly. Sometimes hard candies are tossed out to the crowd. I wonder if Uncle Sam, still rides in on a "mono-cycle" a motorized single wheeled machine.

BRAVO!...That was thrilling. Great video work!....You nailed it!.......The sound quality was great too. I watched it in HD, on my Mac, desktop, with the wide screen. Colors looked good too. Thanks, again!

Hey! it is much improved since the old days!.....That bad music I was referring to, is only on the televised versions they broadcast. In the past they had music on giant speakers blasting out, bad corny Americana music or lousy rock music. I am pleased I can hear the booms. Yay!

That band ROCKS!.....I like them.

Another year in the 1980s, my friends were mugged in one of the parking garages, relieved of their wallets, and scared out of their minds by gun toting punks.

One year in the early 1980s, punk kids were spraying tear gas, into the crowds. I got an eyeful, and had to have my eyes washed out by helpful, strangers in the crowd. It was super nasty and painful.

Cool!..Another event I gave up on years ago. Too many people. Traffic is horrible. And I'm a purist, I hate the music,....I want to hear all the booms and bangs,....not crap music. The crowd going Ooo, and Ahh, is ok,.......but anything else,.....No thank you. Thanks for the video.

This would be cold and like living in an old metal filing cabinet, no thanks.

Great video and thanks for posting. My 1st Comfest was 1973 when it was held near the old food coop on 16th. I last attended the summer of 1977 when I graduated and received my OSU diploma. I miss the pageantry and the music of folks like Willie Phoenix.

Thank you for documenting some of my set. I think it starts around 19 mins into the video!! Happy Comfest!!

The music is Top Notch,..all local bands. They used to have a Jazz groups stage. The Gazebo musicians are always great. Eclectic bands.There is something for every musical taste. I think they have curtailed the spontaneous Drum circles,...there were many and anyone could join them,.....they played their hearts out, in the heat of the day the were always fun and tribal, too. Some booths would have poetry readings, others small one act plays. In the early years, in the 80s the festival went on later into the wee hours of the night,.....that was before The Short North, became home to wealthy condo owners. In the 80s,...no one lived down there, there weren't any new apartments. So if Comfest was still cooking late,.....no one cared and no one was disturbed. Now they close it down at a reasonable hour. In the early years we could sleep in the park, in our booths,....small tents were allowed. Though no fires or cooking was ever allowed. Hard to believe, in the 1970s and early 1980s, The Short North area was considered a slum. Bums and winos owned the streets, they slept in the burnt out buildings, and doorways. By the mid 1980s, that all changed. Old buildings were renovated, and new ones started being built. Now,...it is a whole different place. More like the home to the wealthiest folks. The elite and wealthy. Oh well, I got to be a part of the area and vibe, when it was still a little funky, and you didn't have to be wealthy to hang out there. There a lot of interesting Dive Bars, and quirky, old-timers bars. There were hundreds of closed businesses,....and Artists could rent a whole store front, a former business building for around $100.00 a month, all utilities included. People lived in the back rooms, and turned the old showrooms into art galleries. These were really fun times, and no one needed a lot of money.

During the years I collaborated with my Artist friends, I sold custom, artsy, sculpted table lamps and small tables. I used make collages, from old 1940s Detective magazine graphics. My girlfriend used to make wonderful hand puppets,.....with cloth bodies, and paper art faces and heads, they were fantasy animals. I also bought some paintings and collectibles from other booths, that I still have. One year I won a raffle, and got a huge fun painting, from local artist Paul Volker. I loved the food from the local vendors,....not the commercial stuff. Many local restaurants, and small batch food sellers, had booths. I wasn't a snob, and ate the commercial foods too. Funnel cakes, and corn dogs. I was one of the first booths to run a "Spin Art" machine, that people paid to make their own creations. Then my friends took over the operation and improved it. I volunteered many times, as an after hours clean up crew member, picking up stuff off the grass,....making sure it was clean as we found it. I was very successful selling my small lamps and tables. One year I sold one for $500.00. It was a large lamp, that was over 5 foot tall. My art tables were in the $50.00 range. My collages of old time advertisements from the 1940s, paper art items, sold for $10.00 to $25.00. A few years I sold, some commercial items,.....I found a low cost, line of John Lennon-like round lens sunglasses, with the narrow metal wire frames. I preferred selling art I made.

Hey!...Glad you are here documenting this year's Comfest,...In my youth I attended it from almost the very beginning. I think it started in 1972, across from OSU campus, on Iuka Ave. I began attending in 1977, soon after I arrived to attend OSU for graduate school, in Fine Arts. I went to it every year, even after it moved to the streets, in front of, but not in Goodale Park, in The Short North. Eventually, after a few years, they were granted permission to go into Goodale Park. My artist friends and I decided we wanted to have a booth at COMFEST,...and we began doing just that starting in the early 1980s. Back then, those white "pop-up" tents didn't exist, so most participants, built their own booths. Some erected Yurts, others built mini log cabins, and lean-to structures. By 1982, I had a art studio, in a warehouse, downtown. So we designed a semi-portable wooden structure. Using narrow boards, that bolted together, and blue tarps, we created something that fit in my mini-van. Each year we improved it,....making it lighter and easier to assemble. Then Costco started selling those "E-Z-Up" brand portable tents, in a variety of sizes and they kept getting less costly. Most of us switched over to using them. One person can set up those portable booth tents, although it goes real fast with 2 people. 10 foot square tents are best. Lighting can be hung on the inside. By 1999,....that was my last year of doing a booth, with my friends. They continued on, and still collaborate, to set one up. Hey, we got old, we're all in our 70s, in 2024. When I quit in 1999, I was only 46. I had just bought a house, in The Old North, and gave up my warehouse studio. Some of my buddies have their own children, who help out, and some have other younger friends, who contribute. I still support it in spirit. Peace to all, and enjoy!

🎉

Was just there a couple weeks ago its sad

My friends went to a Stingray pool at The Chicago Zoo, and got to touch and pet them. They said the Stingrays reminded them of aquatic Portobello Mushrooms. With their similar color and soft bodies. I bet it was a fascinating experience.

The musical act, was beyond ridiculous.

Thanks for documenting this festival. In my youth I always attended it, beginning in the 1980s. It has grown up and is much better. In the 1980s era I was a professional exhibiting Artist. My art was in local Columbus Art Galleries and in galleries throughout Ohio. I sold my art through those galleries. I never participated in Columbus, Arts Festival. I purchased other artist's Art at the festival and I still have and enjoy the pieces I own. One is a large, hand tinted, mixed media Print. It is 20 inches by 24 inches. I was a professional picture framer working for a company here in Columbus, for 25 years. I framed the print I purchased, and matted the image out to the size of 26 inches by 30 inches. The Artist was from Akron, and it is a whimsical image of a cat like figure with human features, too. The cat/human is standing in a bedroom, applying makeup before, a 1940s era ladies makeup mirror and dressing table. It is very detailed and the colors are in muted tones. The print looks to be done in the Intaglio technique, printed from a steel plate, then hand tinted with paints. Intaglio prints: the artist uses an engraving tool, cutting the lines into the plate. The whole steel plate is inked up, and it is run through a roller pressure printing press. These are made one at a time, and can be hand tinted differently, each time. The large format is impressive, as most artists work a lot smaller, because of the complexity of the technique. I have a BFA and an MFA in Print Making and have made prints in this technique. I later became a sculptor and a furniture maker.

House of the past...and house of the future?! Has everything!👍🌞🥰

A few things come to mind here... 1) The Lustron concept was way ahead of it's time. 2) Just imagine what could be done for the idea of "affordable housing" if the same concept was employed with the use of modern materials and building technology. 3) I don't know why, but it sure is disturbing how people of a certain age relate absolutely everything to video games. If things keep going the way they are, we're all going to be in trouble. "Reality" these days, is NOTHING like it was for centuries before. Putting so much faith in Oligarchs and Shilliticians to "help us" is a mistake. And purposely hiding in Fantasy Land, hoping we'lll somehow glean some kind of real Life Experience from it just isn't going to work out so well. "Fallout"😢

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Omg I’m only five minutes in. This is painful to see. This was my favorite mall. I started shopping there right when it opened. Stores gone. Store names I don’t recognize. This was such a great mall, awesome in its day.

Thank YOU for the cool video 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👍🏻

There are at least two houses in Burlington Iowa

There are two or three Lustron homes in galion Ohio. I'd love to have one

Cool video 👍

At 10 mins in- my relative Corporal Wiley C. Keith's grave! Nice to see that someone left a wreath.

Anyone for some nice refreshing Nuka Colas? Ill pull out the Blast Radius board?

They have Shaun's bedroom and the master flipped

Fallout house real?!?!? 🥫

Boomers. Boomers never change. Only generation to have it better than their parents and children. They sold out the United States.

4:53 wow that's even the same shape of the bed from the Sole Survivor's house in Fallout 4.

why am I getting so much fallout vibes from this… it legit looks like fallout 4 houses from sanctuary hills but pre war…

Now we know where fallout took their homes designs from… actual homes!

In the uk I dnt think lustron homes were a thing! Older buildings were crumbling old masonry and not at all modernized looking! The older council social housing homes were bad too nowadays their much nicer built and insulated!

Wow!