The Old West End Festival returns to Toledo on Saturday, celebrating the character and quirks of one of the city’s oldest and most distinct neighborhoods.

“We take pride in our neighborhood,” said Josh Thurston, an Old West End resident and public relations co-chair for the two-day festival. “We hope a lot of folks can come down and get to enjoy what we enjoy every day.”

The weekend marks the 46th time that the annual festival has drawn neighbors near and far to the Old West End, a set of residential streets near the Toledo Museum of Art that stand out for their historic architectural styles. Highlights of the festival include tours of several of these expansive homes; browsing at an art fair, marketplace, and yard sales; refreshments at a beer garden; daylong entertainment at two stages, and, of course, the 108th annual King Wamba and Queen Sancha parade.

The parade kicks off the festival at 10 a.m. on Saturday, with a colorful trail of marching bands, floats, and more weaving down Robinwood Avenue, Bancroft Street and Collingwood Boulevard. Bringing up the rear will be Old West End residents Ernest and Brenda Sawyer, decked out in full King Wamba and Queen Sancha regalia.

The characters pay homage to the Toledo’s Mardi Gras festival of 1909. They account for one of the quirks of the annual festival.

“They get to wear their crown all weekend,” Thurston said. “People genuflect for the king and queen, and they yell, ‘Long live the queen!’’

Brenda Sawyer, for her part, said she’s excited to participate. She and her husband have lived in the neighborhood for about 15 years, she said, and attending the festival for longer than that. They head the Old West End Neighborhood Initiative, or OWENI, which addresses neighborhood concerns.

Since it organized in 2012, OWENI has notably painted the home of a senior resident each year, one of numerous projects it tackles throughout the year. It is not affiliated with the Old West End Association, which, among other initiatives, organizes the festival.

Sawyer said she appreciates the recognition that the Old West End Association paid in crowning herself and her husband.

“We are really excited because it shows the people are really paying attention to some of the things we’re doing,” she said. “I think it’s a great honor to be recognized by others.”

The home tours — a focal point of the festival — are being offered Saturday and Sunday between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. This year four residences, built between 1895 and 1912, are up for viewing: the Chesborough-Kramer Home, 634 Acklin Ave.; Anderson-Kraft Home, 2125 Robinwood Ave.; Brand-Madrigal/Gleason Home, 2107 Parkwood Ave.; and R.A. Bartley — Museum Place, 1855 Collingwood Blvd. The last, a chateau-style structure and one-time funeral home, was recently acquired by the Toledo Museum of Art.

Also included in the tours is the First Congregational Church, 2315 Collingwood Blvd., an Italian Renaissance-style building fitted with Tiffany windows dedicated by Louis Comfort Tiffany himself in 1927. (Tours of the church start at noon on Sunday.)

Admission is $5 for a single tour, or, for all five, $15 per person or $25 per couple. Children 12 and younger are admitted free. A donation of five canned goods or five cans of pet food, to benefit St. Paul’s United Methodist Church or Humane Ohio, drops a ticket to $10.

Running 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day are an art fair, in the Toledo Museum of Art’s Glass Pavilion, and a marketplace, on Woodruff Avenue between Scottwood Avenue and Collingwood Boulevard. Yard sales will dot the neighborhood on both days; check information booths for a full listing.

Children should enjoy activities and games between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. each day, while those 21 and older might prefer sipping brews at a beer garden, at the arboretum, open 6 and 11 p.m. on Friday; noon and 11 p.m. on Saturday; and noon and 6 p.m. on Sunday. Alternatively, Glass City Pub Cycle, where festival-goers can drink and peddle simultaneously, will make the neighborhood rounds during the festival for the first time this year.

The 5K Stampede will kick off Sunday’s festivities. Registration opens at 7:30 a.m., with runners and walkers taking off at 9 a.m.

Thurston estimates that the festival brings in “tens of thousands” of visitors each year.

“We get people from all over,” he said. “It’s a family friendly event.”

Contact Nicki Gorny at: ngorny@theblade.com or 419-724-6133.

First Published June 1, 2017, 4:00 a.m.