Reynoldsburg's Newest Tradition Just Outgrew Its First Home

This Saturday, October 3, Huber Park in Reynoldsburg will fill with color starting at 2 p.m. A parade opens the afternoon, food trucks and community tables line the grounds through the evening, and the celebration runs until 8 p.m. It's the city's Diwali-Tihar Festival, and this year it has a new address.

Last year, the celebration was held at Civic Park on Daugherty Drive. In 2026, the city moved it to Huber Park on Davidson Drive, the same grounds that hosted last year's Blues and Brews Fest. The move isn't cosmetic. It's what happens when a six-year-old tradition outgrows the space it started in.

From Sixty People Outside City Hall

The first gathering, in 2020, drew around 60 people standing outside city hall. There was no parade, no vendor lineup, no formal name yet. Organizers formalized it the following year under the title Dashain-Diwali/Tihar Mela, and it has run every October since.

By its fifth annual celebration last October, the event pulled an estimated 15,000 people, according to 10TV's coverage of the 2025 festival. Some of that crowd came from well outside city limits. Ujjwal Bhattarai, who drove in from Nashville, told 10TV he came back after performing at the previous year's event, calling it "just peaceful in general." Attendees also traveled from Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Harrisburg.

The city's own planning estimate for this year's event, posted on Reynoldsburg's event calendar, lists expected attendance at 13,400. Whether the final count lands closer to that figure or closer to last year's reported 15,000, either number puts a six-year-old cultural festival among the largest single-day gatherings this city holds, in a town whose oldest civic identity is built around a very different kind of harvest. Reynoldsburg has called itself the Birthplace of the Tomato since the 1800s, when local grower Alexander W. Livingston developed the Paragon Tomato, marketed as the first tomato bred specifically for commercial use. His home on Graham Road, the Livingston House, is listed on the National Registry of Historic Homes. That heritage still anchors the city's branding. It just isn't the story behind the biggest crowd Reynoldsburg draws each fall anymore.

A Bigger Park for a Reason

Civic Park served the festival well when a few thousand people showed up. Huber Park, at 1640 Davidson Drive, gives organizers more room to work with as the numbers climb. The city has published logistics for the new location:

• Parking is available at City Hall, Huber Park, JFK Park, and Memorial Plaza
• Drones and personal fireworks are prohibited, though the festival's own program includes a fireworks display
• Pets, personal coolers, and pop-up tents are not permitted on the grounds

None of that reads like a small neighborhood potluck. It reads like a city managing a crowd it expects to keep growing.

The Council Member Who Helped Build It

Bhuwan Pyakurel has been part of this celebration from close to the start. In 2019, he became the first Bhutanese-Nepali-American elected to public office anywhere in the United States, according to NBC4's coverage of that election. He spent 18 years in a refugee camp in Nepal after his family was forced out of Bhutan, resettled in the U.S. in 2009, and moved to Ohio in 2014. Last December, he was sworn in as President of Reynoldsburg City Council.

Speaking about the festival's meaning to the Nepali and Bhutanese community he helped organize it for, Pyakurel has said, "This festival brings us all together and makes us stronger."

That framing matters for understanding why this event grew the way it did. It didn't start as a city tourism initiative. It started as a small community marking a holiday outside city hall, and it scaled because the city kept making room for it.

What's Around Huber Park Before or After

Huber Park sits close enough to Olde Reynoldsburg's Main Street strip that a festival trip and a dinner stop fit naturally into the same afternoon. The historic district has its own quieter rhythm most weekends: Vick's Gourmet Pizzeria, Prost Beer & Wine Café set inside a renovated fire station, O'Toole's Irish Pub, and Eastside Brewing Company's taproom all sit within a short walk of each other on Main Street.

Eastside Brewing Company has also been part of a separate local business story recently. Slab Kitchen, the barbecue and comfort food concept known for its baby back ribs and smash burgers, operated out of a shared space inside Eastside's building starting in 2021. Last year, the Nelson brothers who own it opened Slab Kitchen's first standalone location at 7360 E. Main St, just down the road, complete with its own full-service bar. It's a small sign of the same pattern showing up more than once in this city: something that started small and outgrew its original space.

Six years ago, this fit outside city hall. This year it needs all of Huber Park.

If what draws you to a neighborhood is the texture of its actual weekends, not just its square footage or its school zone, that's worth talking through with someone who tracks it closely. Bryce G Smith can walk you through what living near Huber Park and Olde Reynoldsburg looks like across a full year, festival season included. Schedule a free consultation to start that conversation.