Holmes County Ohio Antique Festival
In Millersburg, the Holmes County seat, the streets around the courthouse square change character each October when the Holmes County Antique Festival takes over historic downtown. Dealers set out furniture, glassware, tools, quilts and printed ephemera where shoppers would normally find only shopfronts, and the Antique Market spills across South Monroe Street and Court Street while music drifts from the large stage on East Jackson Street. There is no single venue for the weekend, because the festival is the downtown itself: the courthouse lawn, American Hall and Jackson Street do the work that one hall would do elsewhere, and the distances between them are short enough to walk.
About the Festival
The Holmes County Antique Festival is an annual early-October festival in Millersburg, organised in its working form by the Holmes County Antique Festival Committee and recorded in its legal form as Holmes County Antique Festival Inc. The two forms stand as their layers publish them: the committee appears in village minutes and in the local press preview of the 2025 festival, while the Inc form is the corporation and social-welfare organisation named in the federal tax-exempt record, with an IRS ruling date of June 1973. That ruling date belongs to the organisation’s exempt status in that record, and it is never the festival’s founding.
Millersburg is both the county seat and the festival town, proven independently rather than assumed: the Holmes County Courthouse stands in the county seat of Millersburg, and every festival-side layer places the event in historic downtown Millersburg. The festival’s own site invites visitors to historic downtown Millersburg for a weekend of antiques, vintage and handcrafted goods, live entertainment, food, classic cars and family-friendly fun. Its standing frame — the only programme wording usable without a year fence — is that mixture: antique and artisan markets, live performances, the parade and the classic car show, food vendors and history exhibits.
Quick Facts
| Detail | Holmes County Antique Festival |
| Town | Millersburg, Ohio |
| County seat | Millersburg, seat of Holmes County |
| Setting | Historic downtown Millersburg, around the courthouse square |
| Season | October, each year |
| Current schedule layer | Three days: Friday, October 9, Saturday, October 10, Sunday, October 11 |
| Working organiser | Holmes County Antique Festival Committee |
| Legal form | Holmes County Antique Festival Inc, tax record |
| 2025 billing | 63rd annual, themed A Visit to Yesteryear |
| Closing day | Sunday, with the Grand Parade down Jackson Street |
A Long Run Told in Billings, Not Birthdays
The festival’s age is documented only through edition billings and longevity wordings, and the honest history keeps them in that frame. Local layers bill the festival the 62nd annual in 2024 and the 63rd annual in 2025, the two billings agreeing as a sequence across independent local sources, and that consistency is recorded as billing consistency only. No first-festival year may be back-calculated from the pair, because a naive count from the 63rd in 2025 lands in the early 1960s, a year no layer fetched states, and the festival’s own current site layer bills no edition at all. The guide layer’s more-than-a-half-century wording and the festival’s own site’s for-generations wording are colour in their layers, never founding dates.
The 2025 billing carries its own theme, and the theme must stay in its year. The local press preview styles the 2025 festival the 63rd annual Holmes County Antique Festival: A Visit to Yesteryear, and that subtitle is a 2025 theme, never part of the festival’s standing name. Millersburg glass runs through the festival’s layers as a heritage thread — the chamber calendar promises Millersburg glass among the featured attractions, and the 2025 history exhibits include two Millersburg Glass talks — but no layer fetched ties the festival’s origin to the glassworks era. A village-record layer from May 29, 2019, shows the committee addressing Millersburg council about the fall festival, with committee chairman Pam Akins submitting the request in that year; the 2025 schedule layer likewise lists Pam Akins as the general-questions contact.
For a useful comparison, see the Hocking County Ohio Fair Festival for another county festival.
What to Expect
The Antique Market and the Courthouse Lawn
The Antique Market is the commercial heart of the weekend, set on South Monroe Street and Court Street in the 2025 layers, with the arts and crafts show around the courthouse on the Courthouse Lawn. In the 2025 bill the market and the arts and crafts show run Saturday from ten in the morning until six in the evening, with twenty-five arts-and-crafts vendors counted in the press layer, and both return Sunday from ten in the morning until four in the afternoon.
Music, Exhibits, and the Car Show
The large stage on East Jackson Street carries the weekend’s music, and the 2025 Saturday bill shows how full a single day can be: the West Holmes Chamber Choir from eleven until a quarter to twelve, The Lovedays from noon until half past one, Jonny Shedron from one until two at Court Street and the Courthouse Lawn, the Walhonding Rube Band from two until half past three, Ron and Kim from five until half past six, and SB Music from seven until nine in the evening. The Holmes County History and Collections Exhibits at American Hall, 20 East Jackson Street, run Saturday from eleven in the morning until four in the afternoon in the 2025 layers, with Joe Edinger’s talks titled Buttons, Birds and Bad Behavior and Shiny Glass and Shiny Promises and Susan Edinger’s Underground Railroad presentation. The Darb Snyder Memorial Antique and Classic Car Show fills the CSB parking lot on North Clay Street from noon until half past three on the Saturday of the 2025 bill.
Two Parades on Jackson Street
Jackson Street is the parade street, and the 2025 bill gives it two processions with different characters. Saturday afternoon brings the Classic Car, Fireman’s and Touch a Truck Parade down Jackson Street at half past four, following the car show and the Touch a Truck hours of two until four in the afternoon. Sunday brings the Grand Parade at two in the afternoon, trekking from the east side of Millersburg along Jackson Street to the west edge of town, a longer, more ceremonial progress. Touch a Truck itself carries a small honest conflict in the record: the 2025 press text places it at the CSB parking lot on South Clay Street, while the 2025 schedule layer places it on South Monroe Street, and the two streets stand unmerged rather than reconciled into one settled place.
The Closing Afternoon
Sunday afternoon gathers the weekend’s closing rituals in sequence after the Grand Parade. Visiting festival royalty are introduced, the Holmes County Pottery raffle follows with the year’s signature piece a mug in the 2025 layer, the Old Fashion Costume Contest takes the large stage, and the Kids Tractor Pull runs on North Monroe Street. The Dueling Piano Dames play the large stage from eleven in the morning until two in the afternoon on the Sunday of the 2025 bill. Friday evening opens the weekend quietly in the 2025 bill: Trivia Night at American Hall from six until half past seven, then Highland Grove and Company on the large stage from seven until nine. The pre-festival programme in 2025 adds a queen and princess contest on Sunday, September 28 at Millersburg Methodist Community Church and a downtown scavenger hunt through participating Historic Downtown Millersburg businesses.
Planning Your Visit
Walking the Downtown
Plan on foot, because the festival rewards walking and punishes any attempt to treat it as a drive-through attraction. The mapped downtown features — Antique Market, artisan vendors, food vendors, entertainment stage, classic car show, parade route, history exhibits, parking areas and restrooms — are all within the walkable centre, and the parade route along Jackson Street is the spine to orient by. The festival’s own map is the practical document to carry.
Timing Your Weekend
October is the only season the article can state timelessly, and within October the layers must be kept apart. The festival’s own current schedule layer sets out three days — Friday, October 9, Saturday, October 10 and Sunday, October 11 — billed as three days of entertainment, shopping, exhibits and community traditions, and it prints no edition number and no year. The 2025 layers describe Friday, October 3 through Sunday, October 5, 2025, with Friday an evening opening, Saturday the full market day and Sunday the Grand Parade day, while the 2024 layers describe an October 4 through 6 span with Saturday and Sunday, October 5 and 6, as the full programme days. Treat October as the fixed point and check the festival’s own schedule for that year’s exact days.
What to Bring and How to Pace the Day
Bring patience for browsing, because the Antique Market rewards slow looking: a dealer may need a conversation before a price or a provenance emerges, and the arts and crafts show around the courthouse rewards the same unhurried attention. Families should note the Kids Tractor Pull on North Monroe Street and the Touch a Truck hours in the 2025 bill.
A Saturday in Millersburg
A Saturday shaped by the 2025 bill begins on the Courthouse Lawn, where the Antique Market and the arts and crafts show open at ten in the morning. Spend the late morning between the market stalls on South Monroe Street and the History and Collections Exhibits at American Hall, catching the West Holmes Chamber Choir on the large stage before noon. The Darb Snyder Memorial car show fills the early afternoon in the CSB parking lot on North Clay Street, Touch a Truck runs from two until four, and the Walhonding Rube Band carries the stage through the middle of the afternoon. By half past four the Classic Car, Fireman’s and Touch a Truck Parade is moving down Jackson Street, and the evening belongs to the stage again, with Ron and Kim followed by SB Music playing until nine.
Saturday’s Market Day Against Sunday’s Parade Day
Saturday and Sunday offer two different festivals inside one weekend, and choosing between them depends on what a visitor values most. Saturday is the market day in the 2025 bill: the longest market hours, the full stage bill from late morning to nine in the evening, the car show, the exhibits with their named talks, and the afternoon working-vehicle parade. Sunday is the parade day: shorter market hours, a single headline stage act in the Dueling Piano Dames, and then the Grand Parade at two in the afternoon followed by the royalty introductions, the pottery raffle, the costume contest and the Kids Tractor Pull.
Checklist
- Walk the whole downtown centre rather than treating any single street as the festival
- Start at the Antique Market on South Monroe Street and Court Street, then cross to the Courthouse Lawn
- Check the large stage bill on East Jackson Street before settling into a long market wander
- See the Darb Snyder Memorial car show in the CSB parking lot on North Clay Street on Saturday
- Watch for the Grand Parade down Jackson Street on Sunday afternoon, from the east side of town to the west edge
- Keep October as the fixed season and confirm the coming year’s exact days from the festival’s own schedule
Beyond the Festival Grounds
Beyond the festival footprint, Millersburg itself rewards a slower look, and the streets just outside the market area carry the town’s ordinary life alongside the weekend’s bustle. The courthouse square remains the natural centre once the stalls thin out, and the surrounding blocks hold the shops, eateries and historic buildings that make the downtown worth visiting outside festival hours. The weekend borrows Millersburg’s streets, and when the last parade has passed, those streets return to being Millersburg’s own.
Why the Festival Matters
The festival matters because it turns collecting into a communal act rather than a solitary purchase. An antique market can exist anywhere, but this one happens where the county’s seat town already gathers — around its courthouse, along its main parade street, inside a hall that also hosts trivia nights and local history talks — so buying an old object becomes part of a weekend shared with neighbours, musicians, car enthusiasts and children pulling tractors down North Monroe Street. The history exhibits deepen that effect: Millersburg Glass talks and an Underground Railroad presentation remind visitors that the objects on the stalls come from lives lived in this county. And the billing record, kept honestly as billings rather than inflated into a founding myth, is a surer claim to longevity than any invented origin.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly is the Holmes County Ohio Antique Festival?
It is an annual October festival in historic downtown Millersburg, built around an Antique Market, an arts and crafts show, live music, history exhibits, a classic car show and parades. It is a street festival spread across the walkable downtown.
Where in Millersburg does the festival take place?
The festival takes over historic downtown Millersburg, with the Antique Market on South Monroe Street and Court Street, arts and crafts on the Courthouse Lawn, the large stage on East Jackson Street, American Hall at 20 East Jackson Street, the car show in the CSB parking lot on North Clay Street, and Jackson Street as the parade street.
When is the festival held?
The festival is held each October. The festival’s own current schedule layer sets out three days — Friday, October 9, Saturday, October 10 and Sunday, October 11 — while the documented 2025 festival ran Friday, October 3 through Sunday, October 5, 2025, so visitors should confirm the coming year’s exact days from the festival’s own schedule.
What are the highlights of the weekend?
The highlights in the 2025 bill are the Antique Market and arts and crafts show, the large-stage music bill, the History and Collections Exhibits at American Hall, the Darb Snyder Memorial car show, the Saturday working-vehicle parade, and Sunday’s Grand Parade followed by the royalty introductions, the Holmes County Pottery raffle, the Old Fashion Costume Contest and the Kids Tractor Pull.
What to Expect From the Next Holmes County Ohio Antique Festival
How often is Holmes County Ohio Antique Festival held?
The festival is held once a year, each October, in historic downtown Millersburg. Its documented shape is a weekend festival with a Friday-evening opening plus full Saturday and Sunday programme days in its recent layers.
When is the next Holmes County Ohio Antique Festival?
The next festival falls in October, and the festival’s own current schedule layer sets out Friday, October 9, Saturday, October 10 and Sunday, October 11 as its three days. Visitors should confirm the coming year’s exact days from the festival’s own schedule before travelling.
Will the dates change?
Yes, the exact days shift from year to year within October, as the documented years show: the 2025 festival ran October 3 through 5, the 2024 festival spanned October 4 through 6, and the current schedule layer lists October 9 through 11. October itself stays constant.
Come for the market, stay for the parade, and leave with something old that has found a new home.
