31st Annual Brats & Crafts Festival

From 31st Annual Brats & Crafts Festival Website:

St. James Lutheran Church, 5660 Trabue Road, Columbus, Ohio, will host its 31st annual Brats and Crafts Festival Aug. 1st thru 3rd. Hours are 4-9 p.m. Friday, 12-9 p.m. Saturday, and 12-4 p.m. Sunday.

The event will feature German food and beer, including traditional brats, shredded chicken sandwiches, pulled pork, red cabbage, corn-on-the-cob, summer salad, soft pretzels, apple dumplings, peanut butter pie and several other desserts. There will also be live polka music and dancing, more than 30 crafts vendors, children's games and an 1860s-style "base ball" game.

Entertainment under the big tent will commence at 4:30 p.m. Friday with strolling musicians. The main event begins at 6:30 p.m. with Ken and Mary Turbo Accordians. A hot-air balloon launch is tentatively scheduled for Friday evening.

Saturday's entertainment will feature the Hilliard H.S. Community Band at 2:00 p.m., the Country Steps Cloggers at 4:15 p.m., and Ken and Mary Turbo Accordians will again headline the evening music at 6:30 p.m.

The early-period "base ball" game will be played on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. between the Ohio Village Muffins and the Lutheran Strikers, a team comprised of members of the church's softball league. An old-school umpire, dressed in coattails, top hat and brandishing a walking cane, will ensure that players are properly attired and that the game is played according to Victorian-era gentleman's rules, with no cussing or spitting allowed, and no use of the modern-day baseball glove.

The Brats Festival will conclude on Sunday with an outdoor children's Sunday School entertainment program featuring the clown/juggler/mime act of Matt and Deb Emerick at 9:30 a.m., a performance by the Columbus Maennerchor at 1:30 p.m., followed by our annual German Worship Service scheduled for 2:30 p.m. in the church Sanctuary.

All proceeds from the event are donated to local charities, with matching funds received through Thrivent Financial Services.

St. James Lutheran Church was founded by nine German immigrant families in 1847 and was originally named St. Jakobus Gemeinde.