CONNEAUT – Going back to the time before settlers moved into the Western Reserve and Native Americans roamed northeast Ohio, there have been sightings of a creature beyond description in Lake Erie.
As sightings were recorded but never substantiated, the Lake Erie Monster’s traits have been imagined by countless people over the centuries.
The Lake Erie Monster Festival is a celebration of the sightings that inspired the imaginations of people young and old.
“There have been sighting on Lake Erie as far back as Native Americans in regard to having seen things in the lake,” Lake Erie Monster Festival Chairperson Stephanie Gildone said. “Of course, down in the western basin, there’s Bessie, who is a legend. When this was started, we decided that the eastern basin needed their own festival and their own monster. We hear at the center call it Lemmie, Lake Erie Monster.”
“If you go back and research it, there’s all kinds of newspaper articles from the 1800s into the 1900s,” Gildone said. “Into the 1940s, there were still a lot of sightings and things that people recorded, strange smells and seeing things and tracks coming up on the beach. There’s all kinds of stuff.”
The Seventh Annual Lake Erie Monster Festival will be on Saturday, Aug. 1, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Conneaut Arts Center, 1025 Buffalo St.
“It was just a little thing (when it began),” Gildone said. “There was hardly anything. I don’t even think people hardly came. Then I became chair of it when I got on the board, which would’ve been the second one. (CAC Board member) Cindy (Prather) and I did just a little bit of things and now, my goodness, we have grown.”
The 2026 Lake Erie Monster Festival will have 23 craft vendors, four food trucks and 18-foot inflatables from Big Dog Bounce.
“We have the Rootin’ Tootin’ Root Beer Float stand that the Conneaut Arts Center is sponsoring, and also, our dance department is doing two presentations outside on the terrace. We have a ukulele group now that Greg Wunderle teaches.”
Merlissa the Mermaid and a pirate will make appearances for separate story times and photo opportunities. The duo Tommy and Donnie will perform in the afternoon.
“We were very pleased to have the Ernest T Band from 4 to 6,” Gildone said. “Then, of course, we have a face painter, Face Painting by Shannon.”
The Conneaut Arts Center have craft areas and a cookie decorating station set up for children.
“There will be a miniature masterpiece where they can paint,” Gildone said. “There will be hair beading that’s going to go on a little barrette and they get to make their own. We’re also going to have our very own Ella Dewey doing glitter tattoos.”
Evie’s Luau, Crooked Taco, Squeez’d and Stewie’s Hogs and Dogs will have food trucks at the event.
The highlight of the event will be the Community Gallery Exhibit and a community art installation that guests can participate in coloring.
“The community art installation will be JoJo the Dogfish,” Gildone said. “There’s actually a species of dogfish that live in saltwater, and some of those species have the ability to do camouflage like octopi can. What we’re going to have is all different sizes of the little sponge dabbers for painting and different color paints. People can come and they’ll be able to help JoJo camouflage. If they want to, they can sign their dot with a marker.”
Jojo will remain up for viewing during the month of August.
The CAC will accept donations for the Community Gallery Exhibit until Wednesday, July 29.
Submissions must be drawings, paintings or sculptures of the donor’s interpretation of what the Lake Erie Monster might look like.
“It’s great to see what they might come up with,” Gildone said. “That’s why I hope we get more entries. It’s always so much fun. It really makes a nice gallery with all the different things.”
Gildone has actually spotted something she couldn’t quite explain swimming in the lake currents, a tale she relayed to the actress Donna D’Errico for her YouTube show “Mythbound.”
“I told her about this little incident way back when in my early 30s maybe late 20s,” Gildone said. “I was sitting on my bank and I saw, I don’t know what it was, but a little head popped up and it start swimming and there was a wake about 12 to 15 feet behind it. My first thought was somebody put a boa constrictor in the lake. It swam from west to east and that wake was behind it the whole time. I just kept thinking, ‘What on earth is that?’ And then it was gone.”
“I’ve never seen it again,” Gildone continued. “It was very odd. It wasn’t like a megalodon coming up out of the water or anything. It was just a little head popped up, but the thing that I thought was the weirdest was the wake behind it.”
There will be a $50 prize for one submission selected by the judges per age group. The community will also vote for a People’s Choice award which will be $75. Age groups will include kindergarten through third grade; grades 4-7; grades 8-12; and 18-over.
The Lake Erie Monster Festival is free to attend, which is only possible because of the event’s sponsors.
“(We’re grateful) for not only the people that come to it, like I said the crowds are growing,” Gildone said. “Every year is getting bigger and bigger, which is exciting. It’s very exciting, but we’re also very grateful to the sponsors who help offset the costs of the event. It’s a free event to the community. The face painting will be free. It will be sponsored and the music is sponsored. It’s a pretty big expense, so we are so grateful for the sponsorship that comes from our community, from businesses, from individuals that help us to put this on because without their sponsorship, we would not be able to pull this off.”
Lake Erie Monster Festival sponsors will include Evergreen Lodge, Ardent Air Service, Kim Sutton, Nora Patino, American Legion Cowle Post 151, Conneaut Visitors’ Bureau and Gerdes Pharmacy.
