{"id":252883,"date":"2026-07-27T13:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T13:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/252883\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T13:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T13:10:10","slug":"cac-to-celebrate-lake-erie-monster-with-festival-gazette-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/252883\/","title":{"rendered":"CAC to celebrate Lake Erie Monster with festival \u2013 Gazette News"},"content":{"rendered":"

CONNEAUT \u2013 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\u2019s 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.
\u201cThere have been sighting on Lake Erie as far back as Native Americans in regard to having seen things in the lake,\u201d Lake Erie Monster Festival Chairperson Stephanie Gildone said. \u201cOf course, down in the western basin, there\u2019s 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.\u201d
\u201cIf you go back and research it, there\u2019s all kinds of newspaper articles from the 1800s into the 1900s,\u201d Gildone said. \u201cInto 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\u2019s all kinds of stuff.\u201d
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.
\u201cIt was just a little thing (when it began),\u201d Gildone said. \u201cThere was hardly anything. I don\u2019t even think people hardly came. Then I became chair of it when I got on the board, which would\u2019ve 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.\u201d
The 2026 Lake Erie Monster Festival will have 23 craft vendors, four food trucks and 18-foot inflatables from Big Dog Bounce.
\u201cWe have the Rootin\u2019 Tootin\u2019 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.\u201d
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.
\u201cWe were very pleased to have the Ernest T Band from 4 to 6,\u201d Gildone said. \u201cThen, of course, we have a face painter, Face Painting by Shannon.\u201d
The Conneaut Arts Center have craft areas and a cookie decorating station set up for children.
\u201cThere will be a miniature masterpiece where they can paint,\u201d Gildone said. \u201cThere will be hair beading that\u2019s going to go on a little barrette and they get to make their own. We\u2019re also going to have our very own Ella Dewey doing glitter tattoos.\u201d
Evie\u2019s Luau, Crooked Taco, Squeez\u2019d and Stewie\u2019s 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.
\u201cThe community art installation will be JoJo the Dogfish,\u201d Gildone said. \u201cThere\u2019s 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\u2019re going to have is all different sizes of the little sponge dabbers for painting and different color paints. People can come and they\u2019ll be able to help JoJo camouflage. If they want to, they can sign their dot with a marker.\u201d
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\u2019s interpretation of what the Lake Erie Monster might look like.
\u201cIt\u2019s great to see what they might come up with,\u201d Gildone said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I hope we get more entries. It\u2019s always so much fun. It really makes a nice gallery with all the different things.\u201d
Gildone has actually spotted something she couldn\u2019t quite explain swimming in the lake currents, a tale she relayed to the actress Donna D\u2019Errico for her YouTube show \u201cMythbound.\u201d
\u201cI told her about this little incident way back when in my early 30s maybe late 20s,\u201d Gildone said. \u201cI was sitting on my bank and I saw, I don\u2019t 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, \u2018What on earth is that?\u2019 And then it was gone.\u201d
\u201cI\u2019ve never seen it again,\u201d Gildone continued. \u201cIt was very odd. It wasn\u2019t 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.\u201d
There will be a $50 prize for one submission selected by the judges per age group. The community will also vote for a People\u2019s 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\u2019s sponsors.
\u201c(We\u2019re grateful) for not only the people that come to it, like I said the crowds are growing,\u201d Gildone said. \u201cEvery year is getting bigger and bigger, which is exciting. It\u2019s very exciting, but we\u2019re also very grateful to the sponsors who help offset the costs of the event. It\u2019s a free event to the community. The face painting will be free. It will be sponsored and the music is sponsored. It\u2019s 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.\u201d
Lake Erie Monster Festival sponsors will include Evergreen Lodge, Ardent Air Service, Kim Sutton, Nora Patino, American Legion Cowle Post 151, Conneaut Visitors\u2019 Bureau and Gerdes Pharmacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CONNEAUT \u2013 Going back to the time before settlers moved into the Western Reserve and Native Americans roamed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137],"class_list":["post-252883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}