Massive German-Inspired Holiday Market coming to Bridge Park
Standing as Columbus’ largest suburb, the City of Dublin is already known for the Irish Festival, the Memorial Tournament, and the ever-evolving Bridge Park neighborhood. Come 2026, a new event may be added to the line up. Dublin is actively planning to launch a 20-day long outdoor holiday market inspired by Germany’s popular Christmas markets.
According to this planning document assembled by Town Square, Dublin has been working on a strategy to launch the 50 vendor market. Per the City of Dublin’s government website, the study for this was called for in 2024, meaning this has been in the works for a while. The market would be the first of its kind in the Greater Columbus area, with the potential to grow and add more vendors.
While these markets definitely aren’t new (they’re actually over a thousand years old in tradition), they’re surprisingly not common in Ohio, which has a rich German heritage. Presently, the Christkindlmarkt in Cincinnati is the closest outdoor holiday market experience to Columbus.
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The Dublin holiday market is planned to be held at Riverside Crossing Park, connecting both Bridge Park and Historic Dublin. The area is in proximity to the area’s seasonal skating rink, in addition to local foot traffic from shopping and dining. The initial market is planned to operate between Thanksgiving and Christmas, open each Thursday – Sunday.
The holiday market may also feature fun activities like sledding and snowman building, mazes, crafts, live music, art installations, and other themed special events like concerts and an official tree lighting.
Currently the city of Dublin is working on requesting proposals for a festival operator. In the meantime, we’ll be crossing our fingers that we have a new tradition to look forward to for the holidays in Columbus!
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