Plans Rolling On For Duct Tape Festival

With just a few short weeks left before the annual Avon Heritage Duct Tape Festival opens, organizers are saying plans are on track and this year’s event promises a few new items.

“Preparations are going great,” Patti Sack, the Assistant Communications Manager at ShurTech Brands, said. “We’re super excited for this year; it gets better and better with time.”

This year’s festival, which runs from Friday, June 15 through Father’s Day, June 17 at , has a safari theme and will feature a few new items. 

Erica Obrock, also an assistant communication manager for the festival, said the Duck Tape RV will be unveiled this year and a few more rides will be added.

“It’s a 31-foot RV that will allow for a total Duck Tape experience,” Obrock said of the Duck Tape RV.

Obrock said the RV will feature more than 100 different activities and duct-tape related interactive items. Visitors will be able to make crafts outside or record a 30-second video to share in the social-media realm.

Last year the three-day event drew more than 40,000 visitors from around the Greater Cleveland area—and around the country—paid a visit to the festival and the parade.

“It’s pretty much nonstop from opening on," Sack said. “The entertainment lineup is outstanding. And we have something for everyone throughout the weekend.”

That includes a scavenger hunt throughout the festival grounds, stylish safari-inspired Duck Tape fashions, one-of-a-kind parade floats made with Duck Tape, and life-sized Duck Tape sculptures — even an enormous Duck Tape elephant.

Festival-goers will be treated to a “mini-safari” when local animal expert and duct The festival will feature Thunderstruck, an AC/DC tribute band on Saturday.

Former American Idol contestant Bo Bice will perform on Friday night.

Several Duck Tape celebrities are making the journey to Avon this year, including Chance Foreman, a Texas-based artist who has drawn national attention for his duct tape portraits of everyone from Bob Dylan to Mother Teresa. During the course of the festival weekend, Foreman will craft an original duct tape portrait, giving festival-goers an exclusive first look at his latest creation.

On June 16, celebrity crafter Marisa Pawelko will share her professional crafting tips in the arts and crafts tent as event-goers create their very own unique Duck Tape safari gear.

Check back the week of the festival for a full lineup of the weekend’s events.