DAYTON, Ohio — If you like sweet corn and you like festivals, the city of Fairborn is the place to be. For 42 years, the Fairborn Sweet Corn festival it’s been a staple in the community.

More than 35,000 people come out over the course of the weekend each year.

What You Need To Know

  • The Fairborn Sweet Corn Festival has been a community staple for 42 years

  • Proceeds help raise money for art scholarships and community outreach projects

  • More than 35,000 people come to the two-day festival each year

  • Admission and parking are free at Fairborn's Community Park

Warren Brown has always been involved with the festival.

“Every year I’ve done something and for the last 13 I was the chairman,” Brown said.

Setting the event for more than 160 vendors is no easy task.

Brown wears a lot of hats. He’s in the Lions Club and is a senior adviser for the festival…this year he’s promoted to King.

It’s a status with a lot of responsibility.

“We will help judge the corn eating contest. As they go down the line, we’ll tell them that they’ve cleaned the ear well enough,” he said.

The festival will feature more than 20,000 ears of corn grown by long-time supplier Brentlinger Farms.

“We start in June. We have three different plantings in June and we’re just hoping that one of those plantings is going to be for the festival because you never know,” said Raymond Brentlinger.

“We start picking before we have light and we’ll be picking it until the afternoons,” said Tony Dawes.

“We cook it in a steam bath that’s generated from an old steam engine and then that corn is taken out and is completely unwrapped and you can have it dipped in butter,” Brown explained.

Along with providing a tasty weekend, the festival is a way to give back.

It supports the Fairborn Lions Club and their community efforts, along with the Fairborn Art Association and scholarships.

“We turn it back into the community for the kids in the area. So we feel that it’s a very important thing to do every year for the community,” said Sheryl Scott with the Fairborn Art Association.

It takes more than 100 volunteers to make the weekend a success and the free festival grows bigger every year at Fairborn’s Community Park.

“We always look forward to it. The whole community looks forward to it and it’s a great way to socialize and see your friends and have some good family fun. There’s some rides for the children and there’s no beer so it’s a very family orientated festival,” said festival adviser Jane Trame.

“I love it. It makes my heart burst. The community has something to come to and feel a part of,” said Scott.

It’s a part of Fairborn’s tradition that keeps you grinning…from ‘ear to ear’.

The festival runs on Aug. 17 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Aug. 18 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Parking and admission are free.

You’ll want to get to the festival early because it gets very busy.