To our Visitors, Sponsors, Vendors and Friends: we are excited to announce the return of The Marion Popcorn Festival, coming this September 9, 10 & 11 in Downtown Marion, Ohio. This year, we will be celebrating our 40th anniversary. That’s right, “40 Years of Magic”.

There is currently lots happening & we are working hard behind the scenes to bring you our best festival ever. More will be unveiled in the coming weeks so check back & like/follow our FB page https://www.facebook.com/marionpopcornfestival as more exciting news/updates will be shared here first. See you in September in Downtown Marion.

We’re holding a big online auction with lots of fun and unique items, services, and experiences for people everywhere to bid on and win. Everything happens November 5th, 6th, and 7th and you just might get a sneak peek at some of the 2021 entertainment on the final day. CLICK HERE to visit the auction site, browse over 40 items, and get ready to place your bids.

As you know, we had to make the difficult decision to cancel this year’s Marion Popcorn Festival. We’re working to turn this year’s negative into a huge positive for 2021 and working further in advance on the planning and fundraising so the 40th Marion Popcorn Festival can be the best one yet.

And it isn’t just about the Popcorn Festival. We recognize other businesses and organizations are feeling the impact of COVID-19, too. With the festival being downtown, we thought it was the right decision to share a portion of the proceeds with some organizations in the area – Downtown Marion Inc & Main Street Reimagined.

This is a chance for you to help support 3 organizations AND the city of Marion all at once. Please spread the word and happy bidding!

To our Visitors, Sponsors, Vendors and Friends:

After careful thought and deliberation, The Board of Trustees of the Marion Popcorn Festival announces the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 festival, originally scheduled for September 10, 11, and 12 in Downtown Marion, Ohio.

For 39 consecutive years, Downtown Marion has welcomed the Marion Popcorn Festival the weekend after Labor Day. We have seen hundreds of thousands of visitors flock to Marion, Ohio for the world’s largest Popcorn Festival and enjoy all of their favorite food, crafts, rides and FREE National Headline Entertainment.

In planning a completely safe event for visitors and volunteers while complying with all the restrictions of crowd size and social distancing, safety with food and beverage, the possibility of not having rides, and national entertainers rethinking their tours, we have determined that the challenges of holding the 2020 festival with this high degree of uncertainty is just beyond our abilities this year.

Realize that this has been the most trying issue we have had as leaders of this festival. Thank you to our volunteers who work tirelessly year after year to bring a safe, enjoyable festival to all of us. We also thank our city and county government officials and our many food vendors and corporate sponsors for their support over the years.

We will be back next year to present an epic celebration for our entire community. The 40th Marion Popcorn Festival is now scheduled for the first weekend after Labor Day in 2021.

Mark your calendars, as we will see all of you September 9th through 11th, 2021 on the streets of Downtown Marion.

Thanks to everyone involved for making the 2019 Marion Popcorn Festival such a great event. With perfect weather, solid entertainment, and thousands of attendees, it was a lot of fun for people of all ages. We’re already working on the next edition (our 40th!) and can’t wait to see you back in Downtown Marion September 10th, 11th, and 12th, 2020.

We’re really excited about this year’s parade! With the largest number of floats we’ve had in several years and other fun additions and changes, it’s set to be an entertaining event for all ages.

We wanted to make sure everyone is aware of the updated parade route for this year cause nobody should miss the fun. The parade starts by heading west on East Center Street starting at Forest Lawn Boulevard. It then makes a left, turning south on State Street and another left going east on Church Street (in front of the Wyandot Popcorn Museum), before finishing up and disbanding at the fork of Church Street, Mount Vernon Avenue, and S Vine Street.

Congratulations to all our 2019 Marion Popcorn Festival Royalty! We know you’ll represent the festival well over the next year.

Miss Popcorn 2019: Payton Baxter
1st runner-up: Faith Baumgartner
2nd runner-up: Gabbie DeGood
3rd runner-up: Hannah Edler
4th runner-up: Hanah Reiff

Ms. Popcorn 2019: Jessica Coleman
1st runner-up: Meaghen Burns
2nd runner-up: Candace Floyd
3rd runner-up: Shaylah Monnette
4th runner-up: Jana Thomas

Miss Teen Popcorn 2019: Madisen Schenk
1st runner-up: Madeline Swain
2nd runner-up: Alysia Miller

Miss Teeny Pop 2019: Scarlett Roston
1st runner-up – Addisen Throckmorton
2nd runner-up – Camille Parker
3rd runner-up – Addison Geiser

Miss Wee Pop 2019: Everleigh Curren
1st runner up: Kilynn Messenger
2nd runner up: Karrington Frissora
3rd Runner up: Gracyn Mattox

Mr. Wee Pop 2019: Gregory Oswald
Runner up: Oakley Wollet

Little Miss Wee Pop 2019: RaeLynn Thrasher
1st runner up: Grace McDorman
2nd runner up: Audriella Coolbaugh
3rd runner up: Zalyah Berry

Little Mr. Wee Pop 2019: Tucker Eckard 
Runner up: Tegan Gorrell

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Mark your calendars for a NEW EVENT at the Marion Popcorn Festival – a FORTNITE Tournament! The tournament will be held indoors at Nathan’s Barber Shop (corner of Center Street and Prospect Street) on Friday, September 6th (10am-6pm) and Saturday, September 7th (10am-5pm). Event details can be found here.

Applications are now available for the Wee Pop Pageant and the Little Wee Pop Pageant. You can find each pageant’s application on its individual page.

Both pageants are scheduled for the morning of Sunday, August 4th, 2019, and will be held at River Valley High School.

For more information, contact Kaylee Wallace at wallacekaylee@rocketmail.com.

Want to compete in this year’s program? Applications must be postmarked on or before July 20, 2019.