Buckeye Lake Winterfest This Weekend

ZANESVILLE, Ohio — Neighbors and business owners around Buckeye Lake are gearing up for mid-winter rite of passage.

WinterFest is coming up this weekend at the North Shore Boat Dock. State crews have just completed a rebuild of the four-mile-long Buckeye Lake Dam.

“The idea is that we have this huge tank, a hundred gallon tank. We have a live bass in this tank. This starts at 6:30 in the morning. We have hundreds of people in the parking lot, we have music playing, people dancing, and we put minnows into the tank. The chant is: ‘take the bait, spring can’t wait’. So, if Benny the Bass takes a minnow within three minutes, it’s an early spring,” says Mike Fornataro, Buckeye Lake Winterfest Chairman. He says the events begin Saturday at 6 a.m.

“At that point, it’s pre-dawn, we shoot-off Fourth of July-level fireworks over the lake. If you don’t know Winterfest is going on, we wake you up and remind you. It has become the biggest event of the year in the Buckeye Lake region,” Fornatero adds.

The event is organized by the Buckeye Lake Region Chamber of Commerce.