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Two annual “premiere” events will be taking place the weekend of May 15-17 downtown Warsaw, and Friday the Board of Public Works and Safety approved the road closures for them.
The 21st annual Fat+Skinny Tire Festival kicks off May 15, while the Warsaw Breakfast Optimist Club’s City Of Lakes Car Show will be May 17.
Making the road closure request for the Fat+Skinny Tire Festival, Co-founder and Co-director Greg Demopoulos thanked the city for last year’s festival, which was the 20th year.
“Last year, thanks to Cori Humes, which many of you know from the Visitors Bureau, they have some tools, placer.ai, that allows you to ping cell phones and then see an attendance number for a specific area. And so, we were over 2,400 people downtown last year for the festival, and that does not include kids that don’t have cell phones, which we had a larger number of that. So it was a great turnout,” he said.
Demopoulos said they’re looking forward to the 21st year, and, “We’ve actually been asked to be the kickoff to a new Midwest Cup Racing Series, so we will be the first race that highlights major events in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. So we will be the kickoff event for Midwest Cup.”
For this year’s race course downtown Warsaw on May 15, he said they’re looking to have it the same as 2025 with the road closures within the vicinity of that for Third Friday.
The road closures will be Main Street from Lake to High streets; Center Street from Lake to High streets; Market Street from Buffalo to Indiana streets; Lake Street from Main to Center streets; Buffalo Street from Fort Wayne to Market streets; and Indiana Street from Fort Wayne to Market streets. Closures will begin at 2 p.m. with sections of Lake and Market left open until after rush hour, and roads will reopen at about midnight. Events are scheduled for 7 to 10:30 p.m.
Demopoulos said Andy Cochran, logistics coordinator for the festival, has already met and spoken with Warsaw Police Department Capt. Joel Beam, Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory Chief Joel Shilling and Public Works Director Dustin Dillon on the closures.
Board member George Clemens said at the groundbreaking Thursday for Autocam Medical, the management team actually brought up the Fat+Skinny Tire Festival as they are avid cyclists. Demopoulos said they’ve already been talking to Autocam Medical and are excited to have them in town.
Clemens said the festival is a great event. Board member and Councilwoman Diane Quance said every year the organizers improve how the festival is run and communications with visitors so that it’s as safe as possible for everyone.
Mayor Jeff Grose said it’s a longtime event and he appreciated the organizers’ efforts.
Quance made the motion to approve the road closures, Clemens seconded it and the motion passed 3-0.
Tom Tearney and Paul Finley then presented the road closures request for the Optimist Club’s car show. The closures will start at 7 a.m. and go to 7 p.m. May 17, with the car show going from about noon to 5 p.m.
Roads to be closed are Buffalo Street from Main to Market streets, Indiana Street from Main to Market streets and Center Street from Lake to Indiana streets.
Tearney said this will be their 16th annual car show.
“Last year, we had a very good year. The weather cooperated, so we had a very good turnout. We estimated probably around 1,400 people were able to attend and it went well,” he said. “The weather doesn’t always cooperate, but hopefully we have that again this year.”
The Optimist Club is a service club in Warsaw. They have four main fundraisers throughout the year, he said, and they raise money to give back to youth in Kosciusko County. The car show is the first fundraiser of 2026 for the Optimists.
Tearney said he’s made downtown businesses aware of the event and road closures request.
Dillon said Indiana Street right now has a lane restriction with Lake City Bank’s ongoing building project. In May, that project is slated to still be going on, but he said he’d be happy to help and coordinate with the Optimist Club on that.
“Another great, well-run event,” Clemens stated, making the motion to approve the road closures request. Quance seconded the motion and it passed 3-0.
City attorney Scott Reust said, “Two of Warsaw’s premiere events that fall on the same weekend.”
“And a promise that spring is coming,” Quance stated.
