Culture of Cincinnati

This is relating to the culture of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Annual cultural events and fairs

Approximately 500,000 now attend Taste of Cincinnati, making Taste one of the nation's largest street festivals.

• Bockfest
• Scribble Jam
• Oktoberfest-Zinzinnati, celebrating Cincinnati's German heritage, is the largest Oktoberfest in the US.^[1]
• Cincinnati May Festival
• MidPoint Music Festival is a yearly music festival that takes place in many venues across downtown and Over-The-Rhine.
• Cincinnati Bell/WEBN Riverfest, fireworks display on Labor Day weekend, attracting annual crowds of over 500,000.
• Cincinnati Reds Opening Day Parade and Game (MLB Official Opening Day)
• Goetta Fest
• Flying Pig Marathon
• Cincinnati Flower Show
• Taste of Cincinnati, held annually on Memorial Day weekend and attended by over 500,000 annually.
• Bunbury Music Festival, an annual music festival started in 2012 which takes place on the banks of the Ohio River.
• The MLK Day Parade
• Bockfest, a celebration of Bock beer and the coming of Lent/Spring
• The annual Midwest Black Family Reunion.
• The Cincinnati Flower Show, organized by the Cincinnati Horticultural Society in late April. This floral event, endorsed by the Royal Horticultural Society, is staged at Symmes Township Park and claims to be the biggest outdoor flower show in the United States.
• Thanksgiving Day Race, the sixth-oldest race in the country.^[2]
• Since 1962 the Jazz Festival(now Macy's Music Fest) is held annually during July.
• MusicNOW Festival is an annual music festival started by Bryce Dessner of local band, The National, that takes place in venues in Over-The-Rhine.
• The Tall Stacks Festival, held every three or four years to celebrate Cincinnati's riverboat history.
• The Festival of Lights, hosted by the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden during the year-end holiday season.
• The Cincinnati Fringe Festival 12 Days of Theatre, Film, Visual Art, and Music in the heart of Over-the-Rhine. Ohio's Largest Performing Arts Festival. Begins the day after Memorial Day each year.

Cultural and Entertainment Districts

• Cincinnati Main Street Arts and Entertainment District
• Fountain Square District
• Backstage District

Attractions

The Krohn Conservatory was completed in 1933, and named in honor of Irwin M. Krohn who served on the Board of Park Commissioners. It now contains more than 3,500 plant species from all over the world.

• Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden
• Newport Aquarium (across the Ohio River)
• Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal houses the Cincinnati Children's Museum, the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History and Science, the OmniMax Cinema, and the Cincinnati History Museum in the classic Art-Deco Union Terminal, the largest half-dome on the planet Earth.
• Krohn Conservatory
• Mt. Airy Arboretum
• Lloyd Library and Museum, world-class collection covering medical botany, pharmacy, eclectic medicine, and horticulture.
• Spring Grove Cemetery
• Coney Island of Cincinnati
• Kings Island, in Mason, 20 miles northeast of Cincinnati
• Soak City (Kings Island), in Mason, located inside Kings Island
• The Beach Waterpark, in Mason
• TPC at River's Bend, a golf club that hosts a Champions Tour event (men's senior golf)
• Western & Southern Financial Group Masters, an important tennis tournament held in Mason
• National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
• Taft Museum of Art
• American Classical Music Hall of Fame and Museum
• Cincinnati Art Museum
• Cincinnati Fire Museum
• Cincinnati Observatory
• Contemporary Arts Center / Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art
• Drake Planetarium
• National Signs of the Times Museum
• Creation Museum

Dining

Cincinnatians consume more than two million pounds of Cincinnati chili each year, topped by 850,000 pounds of shredded cheddar cheese.

Findlay Market is Ohio’s oldest continuously-operated public market and one of Cincinnati’s most notable institutions. The market is the last remaining market among the many that once served Cincinnati.

"Cincinnati chili" is commonly served by several independent chains such as Skyline Chili, Gold Star Chili, Empress Chili, Camp Washington Chili, and Dixie Chili. This chili is best appreciated not in a bowl, as one would with the chunkier, "Tex-Mex" chili, but rather, as a sauce to cover a plate of spaghetti, covered in shredded cheddar cheese (3-way), the latter with onions or beans (4-way) or with both (as a 5-way), all topped off with oyster crackers and to some, hot sauce. It can also be placed on top of a hot dog in a steamed bun with mustard and onions, and topped with cheddar cheese (referred to as a cheese coney).

Oprah Winfrey is a fan of Graeter's and caused sales to skyrocket when she raved about the ice cream on her show.^[3]

Montgomery Inn is a local barbecue restaurant that is internationally known for its signature sauce. Bob Hope would frequently have the restaurant's ribs flown to his home in California. LaRosa's pizza, another Greater Cincinnati tradition, is the most popular pizza restaurant in the area, despite stiff competition from National Brands such as Pizza Hut, Dominos, and Papa John's. United Dairy Farmers, a convenience store/gas station, also serves as a "malt shop", reminiscent of the 1950s, where one can still get a scoop of UDF or Homemade Brand Ice cream, a milkshake, or a malt, while filling one's gas tank.

The city is known for the quantity and quality of its many gourmet restaurants. Until 2005, when the restaurant closed, the Maisonette carried the distinction of being Mobil Travel Guide's longest running five-star restaurant in the country. And the former Maisonette's chef de cuisine, Jean-Robert de Cavel, has opened four new restaurants in the area since 2001. Jean-Ro's at Pigall's serves contemporary French cuisine, everyday authentic French bistro cooking is served up at Bistro Jean-Ro, French-Vietnamese fare at Pho-Paris, and delectable breakfasts and gourmet French pastry tarts at Greenup Cafe. Cincinnati's German heritage is also evidenced by the many eateries that specialize in schnitzels and hearty Bavarian cooking.

• Cincinnati chili
  • Skyline Chili
  • Gold Star Chili
  • Dixie Chili
  • Camp Washington Chili
  • Pleasant Ridge Chili
• Goetta
• Graeter's Ice Cream
• Findlay Market
• Frisch's
• LaRosa's Pizza
• Montgomery Inn
• Oktoberfest-Zinzinnati, second largest oktoberfest in the world, behind Munich's Oktoberfest
• United Dairy Farmers
• Penn Station
• Grippo's

Galleries

• Cincinnati Art Galleries

Historical structures and museums

As the fifth-oldest orchestra in the United States, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) has a legacy of fine music making as reflected in its performances in historic Music Hall, recordings, and international tours.

• Cincinnati Ballet
• Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the fifth-oldest orchestra in the United States
• University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
• Harriet Beecher Stowe House
• Heritage Village Museum
• Hauck House Museum
• William Howard Taft National Historic Site
• Findlay Market

Parks and outdoor attractions

Eden Park is home to the Cincinnati Art Museum.

• Mt. Adams
• Clifton
• Mount Echo provides one of the most excellent views of Downtown Cincinnati from its West Side Price Hill location.
• Eden Park, Cincinnati, located in Mt. Adams, hosts the Cincinnati Art Museum, Krohn Conservatory, and Playhouse in the Park. It has extravagant water systems throughout the park.
• Fountain Square, Cincinnati includes the Tyler Davidson Fountain.
• Hauck Botanic Gardens, home to the Civic Garden Center of Cincinnati
• Sawyer Point, Located along the shore of the Ohio River just south of downtown Cincinnati, this mile-long linear park features many different spaces serving all segments of the region's population.
• Theodore M. Berry International Friendship Park, located along Cincinnati's downtown eastern riverfront area was opened to the public on May 17, 2003. The park is named in honor of Cincinnati's first African American mayor Theodore M. Berry whom served as Cincinnati's mayor from Dec. 1972 - Nov. 1975.
• Cincinnati Riverfront Park is a proposed park being planned, part of The Banks project .
• Other parks within the city include: Alms Park, Ault Park, Inwood Park, Avon Woods, Kennedy Heights Park, Bellevue Hill Park, LaBoiteaux Woods, Bettman Center, Little Duck Creek, Brodbeck Preserve, Lytle Park, Burnet Woods, Magrish Preserve, Buttercup Valley & Parkers Woods, McEvoy Park, Caldwell Park, Miles Edwards Park, California Woods, Mt. Airy Forest, Drake Park, Mt. Storm Park, Fairview Park, Owl's Nest Park, Fernbank Park, Rapid Run Park, Fleishmann Gardens, Seymour Preserve, French Park, Stanbery Park, Glenway Woods, and Washington Park.
• For more parks within Cincinnati's Hamilton County, see: Hamilton County Park District

Music venues

US Bank Arena is home to not only big music acts but also local hockey, indoor football, and basketball.

• Annies
• Bogart's
• Madison Theater, Covington, Kentucky
• Rhinos
• Riverbend Music Center
• Rohs Street Cafe
• Southgate House, Newport, Kentucky
• Taft Theater
• Timberwolf Amphitheater, Kings Island. Ohio
• 20th Century Theater
• US Bank Arena

Theater

For a city of its size, Cincinnati boasts a vibrant community of theater artists, educators, and producers. Audiences can attend professional, semi-professional, community, and educational theater opportunities year-round in the Cincinnati tri-state area. Many theatres within the region are members of the League of Cincinnati Theatres. In addition to theater experiences offered through most high schools, many of which are critiqued by local students through the Cappie Awards program, Cincinnati offers a number of college-level theater/performing arts training and performing opportunities.

Professional (Equity) theater

• Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park
• Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati

Professional (non-Equity) theater

• Know Theatre Tribe

Educational theater

• University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
• Xavier University
• Northern Kentucky University

References