Take Your Beer for a Walk: August 2025

Jeff McCullor

There's no better way to take advantage of Erie's lack of open container law than a stroll around Celebrate Erie. Take a walk through the annual festival with brewer Jeff McCullor as he tells us all about what to expect from this year's celebration.

How often do you celebrate Erie? Daily? Bi-weekly? Maybe just annually?

CelebrateErie is upon us, citizens! Now's your chance to relish in all-things-Erie during the yearly street party with an adult beverage in your hand. You can experience so much while taking your beer for a walk.

The event's officially sanctioned beer garden is located at the northwest corner of Perry Square; just look for the grouping of pop-up canopies and string lights. This feels like a great place to start our downtown adventure so get yourself all prepped with a pint and let's take a spin around the festival!

First stop, the Food District. You'll find it directly across the sidewalk from the beer garden and encircling the Perry Square stage, radiating the delicious smells of all sorts of goodies from the likes of A Waffle Miracle, Triple D's, Stanganelli's, and the Happy Camper Snack Shack. These food vendors are set up the whole weekend so swing by for a bite, take in some local music like Ladders, Cosmic Rhythm, and Storms Within on the Perry Square stage and indulge a bit with your beer. Cheers to you, food folks! Thanks for keeping us fed the entire weekend!

Next we'll head south, crossing South Park Row and entering the Erie Insurance Marketplace, where individual businesses are set up on both sides of the street, all the way to Eighth Street. Here you can find everything from custom artwork, jewelry, fresh-cut flowers, even information on the must-attend Eerie Horror Fest event in October. Cheers to you, marketplace vendors!

Keep heading south across the Eighth Street intersection and you'll find one of my favorite parts of CelebrateErie, the Marquette Savings Bank Chalk Walk. Here you'll encounter local and regional artists painstakingly working their tails off to create artwork right on the pavement in real time, as it loops up and down both sides of the street. You can revisit this area throughout the weekend and watch the art progress. Give these folks some encouragement when you stroll past, or bring them a beer? Hey, it couldn't hurt. Cheers to you, Chalk Walk artists!

After we circled around the Chalk Walk we're automatically headed back northwards through the marketplace area, where the Living Room Stage is set up on the east side of the street in front of the Highmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield building. This stage will see the likes of Elle Taylor, Psych Patrol, and Spades among others. This stage is conveniently situated at ground level so you can get all up close and personal with the musicians. Cheers to you, Living Room Stage bands!

We'll keep heading north through the remainder of the marketplace vendor strip, popping out at the southern edge of the VNET Family District where all the family-oriented organizations set up, along the eastern side of Perry Square. Here you'll find pop-up tents populated with groups like WQLN, The Erie Philharmonic, The Brown Clowns, and performances by Park's Taekwondo, Sovereign Ballet, and Kellar's: Modern Magic. Mix in a little zip through the fountain on a hot day and kids of all ages will be appreciative of this part of CelebrateErie. Cheers to you, family-friendly organizers!

From here, we'll mosey on a bit more northward along State Street into a weird no man's land during the daytime hours, a gap in the festival intended to absorb all the humans attending mainstage shows Friday through Sunday nights. During your time above North Park Row take a bit of time to visit the Flagship City District businesses effectively cut off from the world during CelebrateErie. Some key spots include: The Flagship City Food Hall, Luminary Distilling, Glass Grower's Gallery, The Dollhouse at Pointe Foure, Hazards Golf Mini Golf Social Pub, Copper Carriage, Ember & Forge, UPick6 Tap House, and others along the way. You'll probably need to refresh your beer at this point – you've covered a lot of steps so far! Cheers to you, local brick and mortar businesses!

There's only one stop left, the Mainstage. You can't miss it, it's that huge stage-thing sitting at the corner of Fourth and State streets. Friday night's headliner is country star Russell Dickerson with local support from Matt Texter & The One Shots and Brenna Bone. He's on a national tour so this will bring out the fans for sure. Saturday takes us back to the early 2000s with rock-rap group, gymclassheroes. Local group Reminiscent opens up the evening, consisting of singers Rasia Crockett, Anoia Hobson, and Andrani Foster Samuel. Rochester-based Bachata Rebelde is also on Saturday's bill. Sunday we're treated with all local music: Preach Freedom and Connect, bob. (an Interpretation of Bob Dylan), and Erie All Stars Present: The Beatles. Cheers to you mainstage musicians!

Keep drinking, walking, supporting local, and celebrating Erie.

Cultures, Arts, Festivals and Events of Erie (CAFE), which supports Celebrate Erie, is participating in Erie Gives Day on Tuesday, Aug. 12. To donate, visit eriegives.org

Aug. 15-17 // Downtown Erie // Free // For more info: celebrateerie.com