Fulton County Ohio Media

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On Friday night, the Village of Swanton’s recently established Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area (DORA) hosted its first block party featuring live music, games and a food truck.  The DORA, which encompasses a small section of Zeiter Way off Main Street and includes Benfield Wines and Hub’s Swantucky Pub, was filled from end to end with local residents and out-of-town visitors taking advantage of a warm summer evening to celebrate the beginning of the Fourth of July weekend in a friendly and carefree atmosphere.

The idea behind a DORA is to create an economic stimulus in a downtown area by allowing the consumption of alcohol in a very controlled fashion within the confines of that area.  Judging by the attendance on Friday night and the way everyone conducted themselves, the event was a big success.  “It was super fun. We had a really good time and had a lot of people ask us to do it again,” said Julian Benfield of Benfield Wines.  “We were busy all night.  So was Hub’s. And we saw a lot of new faces,” she added, echoing comments made by some of the Swanton residents.

A great addition to this inaugural event was the music of the widely popular Chris Shutters who entertained the crowd from 6:00 to 10:00 PM.  Tocayo’s Authentic Street Tacos food truck was on hand to feed the hungry and cornhole games took place in the grassy area next to the Swanton Chamber of Commerce building. The next DORA block party is schedule to happen on July 21, 2023 starting at 6:00 PM.  JP and the Big Deal will be the musical guest and organizers are in the process of lining up a food truck.

Currently, the size of the DORA will remain the same until the first full year of existence. The program will then be reevaluated to determine what changes may be warranted. “We’d really like to get it expanded northward, especially so we can include EJ Ritter Hall and all the wonderful things that happen in that venue,” Julian explained.

Click on the link above to access photos from the event. Photos are in the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website.

Photo: Chris Shutters