Ludlow Avenue goes car-free this Saturday as Clifton's Gaslight District transforms into a street festival stretching from noon to 11 p.m., with chalk artists painting murals across the pavement and short films screening inside the neighborhood's century-old movie house. CliftonFest returns for its second year since a lengthy hiatus, once again pairing sidewalk art with live music and a packed lineup of local vendors along Ludlow Avenue.
The City of Cincinnati has approved official closures from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, September 26, shutting Ludlow Avenue between Middleton and Clifton avenues, along with Telford Street and Ormond Avenue, to vehicle traffic, according to the City of Cincinnati. Those closures make room for vendor booths, music stages, and the sidewalk chalk art that has become one of the festival's signature draws. As local12.com reports, the festival itself runs from 12 p.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday within Clifton's Gaslight District.
This year's schedule packs in nearly 20 local music acts, more than 45 regional artisan vendors, and 25 chalk artists creating murals along Ludlow Avenue, per the Clifton Cultural Arts Center. The scale makes it one of the neighborhood's largest annual community gatherings, bringing art, music and vendors to Ludlow Avenue.
Short Films Return to a Theater Clifton Once Fought to Save
Festival programming at the Esquire Theatre includes local arts history documentaries, among them King of Them All, a short focused on the legacy of Cincinnati's landmark King Records label, according to Cincinnati CityBeat's coverage of the festival's return this year. Screening those films inside the Esquire carries its own weight in Clifton, where the theater's survival was never guaranteed.
Built in 1911 as the Clifton Opera House, the Esquire was slated for conversion into a fast-food restaurant in the mid-1980s until Clifton residents fought the plan all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court. The theater reopened on April 20, 1990, with three screens, then added three more in 1999. That fight remains part of why film screenings at the Esquire during CliftonFest carry civic weight beyond simple entertainment.
A Festival Revived, Backed by a New Permanent Home
CliftonFest is produced by the Clifton Cultural Arts Center and Clifton Town Meeting, and it returned in 2025 after its 2019 festival, per a video account referenced by Cincy Lifestyle. The pause coincided with a period when the arts center itself lacked a permanent building.
That changed in March 2024, when the Clifton Cultural Arts Center opened an 18,000-square-foot, $12.8 million facility at 3412 Clifton Avenue, giving the organization a permanent neighborhood home, according to 91.7 WVXU. The facility gives the center a permanent neighborhood home.
Getting There: Parking, Buses and Free Metro Passes
Festival organizers are recommending that attendees park at Cincinnati State and ride the Metro bus to the festival rather than drive directly into the closure zone, per local12.com's reporting. The first 500 people who take Metro to CliftonFest will receive a free Metro day pass, the outlet reports.
The recommendation connects to existing infrastructure: Cincinnati State's lot gives festival-goers a place to park before taking Metro to the festival.
A Festival on Ludlow Avenue
Clifton's Gaslight District is the setting for Saturday's street festival.
Saturday's festival gives Ludlow Avenue over to art, film and music.
