Carnival rides, midway games and a card-themed fall festival are returning to Norwood's Factory 52 campus, and this time organizers are keeping the games going for nearly two weeks. The House of Cards Carnivale runs October 1 through October 11, marking the event's second year and a dramatic expansion from its debut run.
The festival made its first appearance as a five-day event in October 2025, and this year it more than doubled in length to eleven days, according to Everything Cincy. General admission remains free, while rides and midway games are separately ticketed. At the inaugural event, Big O Amusements supplied rides and games — including the Starship 2000 — which were available through single tickets or $25 daily wristbands, per PLK Communities. As Cincinnati CityBeat reports, the carnivale also features local food and beverage offerings from The Gatherall, Braxton Brewing and Fretboard.
A Fall Tradition Rooted in Playing Cards
Sarah Burgett, The Gatherall's marketing, events and experience manager, told CityBeat that Factory 52's carnivale is becoming a new fall tradition. She said the event brings the Norwood community together to celebrate and have fun in its own neighborhood.
The playing-card theme isn't just marketing flair. Factory 52 sits on the site of the former United States Playing Card Company factory, originally constructed in 1899. The company produced Bicycle, Bee, Hoyle and Tally-Ho cards in Norwood for more than a century before relocating to Erlanger, Kentucky, in 2009, according to the company's own history on Wikipedia. The company was founded in Cincinnati in 1867, and its former Norwood facility covered about 20 acres.
The Clock Tower That Once Reached New Zealand
One of the campus's most recognizable landmarks, an eight-story clock and bell tower built in 1922 to mark the playing card company's 100th anniversary, still stands on site. The tower originally housed 12 carillon bells broadcast over radio station WSAI to listeners as far away as New Zealand, according to MKSK Landscape Architecture. The playing card company owned and operated WSAI on campus from 1922 to 1930, using it at times to broadcast bridge lessons.
At the 2025 Carnivale, The Gatherall, a 20,000-square-foot food hall, hosted offerings from more than a dozen vendors. The venue has its own tie to that history: It was created by adaptively reusing the playing card company's original employee cafeteria building, per MSA Design, whose project files note the structure was physically moved across the campus using logs and horse teams in 1920 before its conversion into the food hall.
From Brownfield to $100 Million Neighborhood Anchor
The carnivale's growth mirrors the broader transformation happening around it. Developer PLK Communities has invested more than $100 million into Phase 1 of Factory 52, turning the former industrial brownfield into a mixed-use destination with more than 400 residential apartments, retail shops, craft breweries and public green space, according to the Port of Greater Cincinnati. The project also reused bricks and wood.
The developer acquired the adjacent nine-acre former Multi-Color Corp. facility. Factory 52 townhomes are coming in summer 2026.
Factory 52 is directing visitors to its official website for more information on the House of Cards Carnivale, which runs through October 11 across the Norwood campus that once printed the nation's playing cards and now anchors a mixed-use neighborhood.
