Mill Race
Monster Festival
October 23–25, 2026
SAVE THE DATE
Mill Race Monster Festival
🗓️ Friday, October 23–Sunday, October 25, 2026
📍 Mill Race Park, Columbus, Indiana
The Legend Rises.
Join us for the inaugural Mill Race Monster Festival, a bold new celebration inspired by Columbus’s most beloved local legend.
Mill Race Park will transform with immersive environments, cryptid conversations, live performances, artist features, and family-friendly programming—all rooted in a myth that is uniquely ours.
Mark your calendar and plan to be part of a new tradition that builds community pride, draws regional visitors, and brings our creative spirit to life.
More details coming soon.
Rooted in History
Actual newspaper articles reporting the monster sightings in 1974.
Festival Origins
The Columbus Area Arts Council began exploring the idea of a Mill Race Monster Festival in 2024 following the overwhelming response to The Monster Show exhibition at 411 Gallery. The exhibition marked the release of "The Mill Race Monster" comic by Kevin Zeigler and proved that this local legend still has creative energy to ignite.
The show featured monster-inspired work by local artists Laurie Wright and Curtis Heartwell, alongside Zeigler’s original comic illustrations. What started as an exhibition quickly revealed something bigger: a shared appetite for storytelling, folklore, and art that feels uniquely Columbus.
