For over 35 years, The Wake has been a Put-in-Bay tradition, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. The purpose of the event is to celebrate and commemorate the closing of another great summer season on the islands. The events of The Wake itself are held at the Round House Bar and Park Hotel on Saturday night. The hotel becomes haunted for the evening. A nominal entrance fee gets guests into the hotel, where among other things, they’ll find a casket in which the summer season is “buried.” Following the Haunted Hotel, everyone will head into the Round House Bar for live entertainment, drinks and a festive night.
The Wake and Homecoming
The Wake is part of a newer tradition up at Put-in-Bay called Homecoming Weekend. Homecoming Weekend is an opportunity for Put-in-Bay’s summer workers of season’s past to come home to the Bay for a weekend of fun and relive memories of their great summers here. They do a pub crawl, and just in general have a great time.
Put-in-Bay is so unique because it’s almost two different places depending on the time of the year. During the winter, it is a sleepy island community of less than a thousand people. During the summer it becomes a festive travel destination for all of the Midwest. This makes the changing of the seasons hold particular meaning up here. The open of the season is cause for celebration every year, and the close of the season is a time for bittersweet remembrance and fond memories of another summer past.
This weekend is also important to our guests as it is essentially the final opportunity to get away to Put-in-Bay for a weekend. We love to have guests join us to celebrate a successful Put-in-Bay season. Look here for lodging options for The Wake and Homecoming Weekend, or any other weekend up at Put-in-Bay this season!