Train Festival Sponsorship offers high visibility in Central Ohio. You will be recognized for your support of community, history and fuel-saving railroads. Your branding will reach more than 150,000 homes and your name will be remembered for its association with one of Ohio's most fun events.

In 2008, we have completely revamped the sponsorship program to offer more opportunities at all levels with increased recognition and exposure for your company year round. Imagine your company's 5' high facade immortalized in The Depot Village Junction during the festival and for the next 12 months for all Depot visitors to see. You can even have naming rights for our miniature train ridden by 3,100 people last year.

July 2008 Sale: We've decreased the recommended contributions for several levels to strengthen the value Train Festival sponsorship in this economic climate. Click here - And don't forget the brakeman level.

Sponsorship Levels: Railroad Baron Conductor Engineer Tents, Attractions Depot Village Exhibit space Brakeman (entry level)

Sponsorship Video

Details: Major sponsorship, Site layout, Brakeman

Now in its third year, Train Festival at The Depot is a proven success. Visitors are still talking about the fun they experienced at the 2007 festival and how they anticipate attending again this year.

LAST YEAR, more than 6,000 people attended Train Festival at The Depot. This year we anticipate from 7,500 to 10,000 train enthusiasts and their families. The Train Festival is not just the usual train event; it offers an exciting new approach to a community festival with train rides, great vendor exhibits, fun entertainment, working displays, lots of train action, excellent food and all types of rail related items for purchase.

 Research shows that a high percentage of today’s leisure travelers are taking day trips within their own state while they explore an expanded community. They also spend more of their travel dollars each year visiting cultural and historical attractions. The Train Festival offers both a cultural and a historical experience. Parents and grandparents alike want their children and grandchildren to experience what it was like to ride a train and to experience the fun of operating a model railroad. Train Festival creates that experience.

The mission of the festival is to provide the public with an extraordinarily fun train experience in a festival setting where our visitors come away having learned various aspects of the rail industry from the smallest model railways to full-scale trains, artifacts and other rail attractions.

Festival Program

Train Festival at The Depot offers something train-related for everyone, and it is bigger and better than the 2007 festival. The FREE 1/3 scale train rides are a featured attraction. This year riders of the train will encounter a Wild West Show along with the Depot Village Junction featuring the storefronts of our sponsors. In addition to the 1880’s elegantly restored train depot with railroad artifacts, visitors can also explore a 1909 fully restored Central Vermont vintage caboose, a 1925 Vulcan locomotive, a 1951 Great Northern Empire Builder dining car, and the newest addition to the collection – an 1886 Ringling Brothers’ private executive car, Car 100.

Attendees can view the exhibits and the variety of train paraphernalia, learn about and experience the railroad industry spanning 150 years, and receive product news and tips on model train layouts and construction. Visitors will also experience live entertainment, food, children’s activities, door prizes awarded hourly and more.

Benefits

As a sponsor, your organization will benefit in the following ways:

• Exposure through promotion of The Train Festival at The Depot in e-mail marketing, Website presence, advertising, and brochure distribution.
  
  The Greater Columbus Metropolitan Area is comprised of more than 1.7 million people. Media advertisements, editorials, radio and TV spots target this area as well as surrounding communities. Flyers and posters, with your company name and logo, will be distributed to model and full-scale train enthusiasts through hobby stores, model train shows and Ohio railroad tourism sites (throughout Ohio). Website exposure on The Train Festival at The Depot home page, with links from The Depot and Ohio Railway Museum websites and other rail tourism attraction websites will reach thousands of rail enthusiasts. Depending on your sponsorship level, your company name and logo will be included in media advertising in Central Ohio newspapers and local radio. Your company will be acknowledged during television interviews.
   
  
• Raise the level of awareness of your products and services to model train hobbyists, designers, builders, garden railway enthusiasts, classic toy train collectors, rail excursion promoters, railroad museums, and tourist train operators.
  
  In 2007, more than 6,000 people enjoyed The Train Festival at The Depot … and it was our 2nd year! (This year we are expecting 10,000.) While most of the attendees were train enthusiasts (as expected), we also drew people from all demographics. Cultural and historical enthusiasts took an active interest, as well as the general public.
   
  
• Receive recognition as a leader in the growing train community. Network and develop further relationships with an active market of train enthusiasts who spend a lot of money supporting their interests in rail.
   
  
• Build brand loyalty and association with a highly successful annual event.
  You will have an exhibit space at The Train Festival at The Depot, and your company name and logo will be placed on the festival banner as a sponsoring organization.
   
  
• Show your support for cultural and historic education.

To take advantage of the above opportunities and be included in printed materials, please down load the forms and fax to 614-324-5931 soon. Or, call 614-324-5930 and ask for Lynda. Your company’s inclusion in the pre-event publicity will begin as soon as we receive your written commitment.

Volunteers - Exhibitors