This weekend, central Ohioans will don tricorn hats and raise the skull and crossbones on pontoon boats, speedboats and jet skis for the third annual Buckeye Lake Pirate Festival.
Retirees Kelly and Neena Collins of Hebron helm the gathering that celebrates a romanticized version of the old-timey, sea-faring swashbucklers.
Their house on the lake is decked in nautical décor. A large purple and blue octopus peeks out the front window. Wooden swords sit among umbrellas in the coat rack. And a pirate flag flutters in the breeze out back.
Kelly Collins – who is better known around the lake as ‘Captain Kelly’ or by one of his other pirate monikers – showed off five wooden chests on the dining room table. They had rounded lids and brass details.
Thirty-seven chests in total are part of a treasure hunt that will take pirates, mermaids and steampunkers to businesses all around Buckeye Lake.
“[They’re] handmade cedar, and they're about 10 inches by 11 inches by about 14 inches high,” Kelly said. “Each of the businesses will take their merchandise and customize the treasure chest.”
Participants can pick up a treasure map, then search for booty by boat, bicycle, golf cart, ATV or car. They’ll use a QR code to enter a drawing to win any chest that they find.
The treasure hunt is just one part of the three-day pirate gathering that also includes a Renaissance Market, musicians and jugglers, two parades and a pirate fashion and body art show.
Assembling a crew
Before their pirating days, Captain Kelly and his wife, Neena – who sometimes goes by “Skipper Charlie” – did their fair share of costuming, performing and event planning. Among other jobs, the couple ran The ScareAtorium, a large, haunted attraction near Columbus.
They brought their love of Halloween and whimsical costumes into retirement on Buckeye Lake.
When they heard that people sometimes dress up for Winterfest, a popular late-January party on the lake, the Collinses made a short leap – or rather, an easy step off the plank.
“We were like, ‘Well, look, we just bought a house out here. We live on a lake. Let's be pirates,’” Kelly Collins said. “We love dressing up as pirates.”
“There were no other pirates out here, we looked for them,” Neena added.
The Collinses’ pirate crew started with six people.
“And everywhere we went, people stopped us and said, ‘You guys look great. Who are you?’” Kelly said.
Realizing that there were other pirate-minded people living near the lake, the Collinses started a Facebook group: The Buckeye Lake Pirates. Today, the page has about 1,400 members.
Last year’s pirate festival brought around 5,000 swashbucklers to the lake – and plenty of customers to local businesses.
Kelly has taken to wearing a pirate hat just about everywhere he goes.
“You know how people wear baseball caps? Well, I wear a pirate hat,” he said. “When people see me, they come over and it starts a conversation.”
Anyone can be a pirate
Kelly thinks people love pirates because of the lighter, fun depictions popularized in TV and movies like “Pirates of the Caribbean.”
Playing pirate is also an escape from the stresses of the real world. It’s the idea of freedom, the promise of adventure. Kelly said when you dress up as a pirate, your attitude changes.
“You're loose, you're fancy-free, you don't live by the rules, you just enjoy life, and that's really what it's all about,” he said.
Neena said anyone can be a pirate.
Her brown tricorn hat was adorned with a plume of teal feathers. As she spoke, tassels around the brim bobbed with each word.
She said you don’t need anything that fancy to enjoy pirate culture, though. A pirate costume can just be a hat, or as simple as a white shirt, blue jeans and a bandana or belt.
“You don't have to invest a lot of money to enjoy the pirate culture," she said. “Pirates are more like mix and match. And as time goes on, it allows you to express your own sense of creativity.”
Plenty of people have embraced the pirate spirit. So many, that the Buckeye Lake Pirate Festival had to relocate from its original home in the village of Buckeye Lake to Big Stan’s Bar and Grill in Thornville, on the far east side of the lake.
The new venue is about a half mile away from the water, but it comes with more space, a large stage for performances and more parking for “landships.”
Pirates invade this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Any scurvy dogs who can’t make it to Buckeye Lake can set sail for one of Ohio’s other pirate festivals this summer. The Port Clinton Pirate Fest and Fremont’s Ohio Pirate Con both cast off on July 24 in northwest Ohio.