Freshwater Farms of Ohio in Urbana is throwing open its gates for the 24th annual Ohio Fish & Shrimp Festival, spreading the celebration across three Saturdays this September with live music, seafood baskets, a Scottish Highland throwing competition and a touch tank stocked with sturgeon that have grown up to six feet long. The festival, which runs each day from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the farm's property at 2624 N. U.S. 68, doubles as the harvest party for the farm's freshwater shrimp ponds, which have to be emptied every September before Ohio's water gets too cold for the tropical prawns to survive.
According to the Springfield News-Sun, the event features 12 bands spread across the three weekends, plus a full slate of family attractions including a sturgeon petting zoo, touch tanks, hand-feeding trout, four inflatable bounce houses, face painting, balloon sculptures and a pirate treasure sand dig. Those white sturgeon arrived at the farm as five-inch fingerlings flown in from an Oregon hatchery back in 1997, and they now live year-round in indoor touch tanks open to visitors, according to Freshwater Farms of Ohio. General admission runs $10 for ages 13 and up, $5 for kids ages 3 through 12, and is free for children 2 and under, with same-day re-entry allowed via hand stamp, per the paper's report. Ahead of the festival, the farm offered discounted $5 early-bird tickets through August 31, a 50% cut off the standard gate price, as reported by the Urbana Daily Citizen.
Three Saturdays, Three Different Lineups
The music kicks off September 12 with Dulahan playing Celtic and Americana, The Whirlybirds performing swing and big band tunes, Terrapin Moon covering the Grateful Dead, and The Relics running through Beatles and Eagles hits, per the paper's report. That same day also hosts the Freshwater Games, the festival's Scottish Highland strength competition organized by Sticks and Stones Heavy Athletics, which includes nine throwing events beginning at noon — hammers, stones, caber toss and weight over bar among them — along with a 10 a.m. clinic for novice throwers and competitions split between seasoned and novice athletes.
September 19 brings a classic car cruise-in hosted by the Urbana Cruisers Car Club from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., alongside performances from Overdrive playing country and southern rock, LA Band on R&B, Dead Centric covering the Grateful Dead, and Daniel Dye & The Miller Road Band on Americana and folk. The festival's final Saturday, September 26, closes things out with a dog adoption event run by the Champaign County Animal Welfare League from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., a pet costume contest hosted by Wags Bakery and Grooming with free registration by 11:15 a.m. and judging at 11:30 a.m. for best overall, most creative and people's choice, plus music from American Whale, Angela Perley, The Usual Suspects & Repeat Offenders and Bastard Bearded Irishmen. Dragonfly Vineyard & Wine Cellar also pours tastings that day from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., according to the paper's coverage.
A Menu Built Around the Harvest
Food is central to the celebration, with the festival offering rainbow trout, jambalaya, smoked fish flights, edamame salad, coleslaw, and fish-and-fries alongside grilled, breaded and coconut-crusted shrimp basket combos, plus additional selections from food trucks on site. Charlie's Bar by Freshwater Farms serves beer, craft beers, wine, margaritas and mead from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and the farm's market stays open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. each festival day. Guests can bring their own lawn chairs and blankets or use tables and chairs set up in front of the stage, with additional seating available at the farm's fountain display area and the Rainbow Project, which features a wisteria dome and wildflower meadow maze.
From Chicken Farm to Ohio's Largest Indoor Hatchery
The festival's roots trace back to 2002, when it began as a one-day street event in downtown Urbana to mark the farm's first freshwater shrimp harvest before relocating to the farm's U.S. 68 property in 2005, according to the Ohio Fish & Shrimp Festival. That move to the five-acre site let organizers add live fish displays and expanded vendor areas that have grown into today's event. Freshwater Farms itself was founded in 1983 by marine biologist Dr. Dave Smith and his father Dick Smith on what had been an abandoned chicken farm, and it became the world's first commercial recirculating aquaculture system facility to raise rainbow trout, per the Champaign County Visitor's Bureau. It remains the longest-running indoor recirculating aquaculture operation in the country, and today stands as Ohio's largest indoor fish hatchery, producing between 100,000 and 150,000 pounds of fish annually, according to the Champaign County Economic Development Partnership.
The farm's aquaculture expertise has spun off into other ventures too. In 1990, Dr. Smith launched WaterSmith Systems, a division that designs custom pond aeration systems and decorative fountains, drawing on the same pond biology know-how developed at the fish farm, according to WaterSmith Systems. Statewide, Ohio's aquaculture industry has grown substantially since the early 1990s, expanding from 43 farms generating $1.0 million in sales in 1992 to 140 farms producing $6.6 million, with more than 170 farms now holding state permits, according to USDA Census of Agriculture data compiled by Ohio State University Extension's South Centers.
Clean Water Remains the Industry's Lifeline
That growth depends heavily on stable, clean groundwater, an issue that surfaced closer to home earlier this year. In March, Urbana city officials passed a 12-month moratorium on a proposed $1 billion data center development after residents raised concerns about groundwater protection near the Cedar Bog Nature Preserve, as Hoodline previously reported. For an operation like Freshwater Farms, which relies on a steady, clean water supply to run its recirculating tanks and shrimp ponds, that kind of local water debate underscores just how tightly the region's aquaculture economy is tied to the health of its groundwater.
