SoupFest plans to host its fifth edition Saturday at the Valley Dale Ballroom in Columbus, Ohio, complete with live music and more than 40 homemade soups for attendees to sample. Credit: Courtesy of Evan Harris
Although the fifth annual SoupFest revolves around delicious soup and live music, the story behind the festival is one of friendship, loss and legacy.
SoupFest, which will take place Saturday from 1-10:30 p.m. in the Valley Dale Ballroom, will feature more than 40 homemade soups for attendees to sample and vote on, live music and raffles, according to a SoupFest press release. Champions in four soup categories — people’s choice, unique, vegetarian and “thoup,” or thick soup — will be crowned at the event.
The event will also serve as a tribute to one of three event co-founders, Nick Battaglia, who passed away from an accidental overdose in November 2019, Evan Harris, executive producer and co-founder of the event, said.
“Nick promoted SoupFest quite a bit to his family,” Harris said. “He was incredibly proud of it, and he was the face of it, and he still is.”
The event first began in 2018 after Harris tweeted about having a dream in which he was eating soup. It soon became a running joke between him and his two friends, Battaglia and Jake Sekas, also a co-founder of the event.
“They pulled me aside one day and said that they were going to throw a soup festival for me,” Harris said. “The first one was in their house, and we expected 10-15 people to show up. By the end of it, we couldn’t fit everybody in the house. We knew we wanted to make it an annual deal.”
The second annual SoupFest, which Harris said was held the following year in 2019, grew more quickly than the three of them expected. After receiving 90-100 RSVPs, he said they quickly realized a larger location would be necessary.
“We scrambled and ended up moving it to an apartment complex’s extra room for events,” Harris said. “It was so late and unorganized that we didn’t bring any bands, but that was all free fun.”
By the end of the second SoupFest, the trio knew they had something special and wanted to do something positive with it, Harris said. Battaglia, Sekas and Harris then partnered with Neighborhood Services Inc., a local food pantry on the east side of Columbus, and donated a significant portion of event profits to the organization.
When it came time to host the third annual SoupFest, Harris said tickets once again sold faster than they could have expected.
“It was bliss. We sat around and looked at each other like, ‘Is this really happening?’ ” Harris said. “Unfortunately, that would be the last time that Jake and I saw Nick.”
After Battaglia passed, Sekas and Harris said they decided to continue the event as a memorial to Battaglia by focusing on issues he cared about, such as food scarcity and social inequality. Harris said the 2020 SoupFest was hosted at Ace of Cups in Clintonville, with musical performances from friends and acquaintances.
“It was a pretty powerful experience for those who were grieving and those who knew how much it meant to Nick,” Harris said. “Those that may not have been affiliated with him before, who showed up for the music and the soup, learned more about Nick’s life and the things he was proud of.”
After Battaglia’s death, his friend Wes Kasik joined the SoupFest team to provide a marketing background that would further establish the event, Harris said.
Due to the pandemic, the fourth SoupFest was held via Instagram Live in 2021. According to the website, more than $10,000 was donated to the Nick “Miklós” Battaglia Fund through the Columbus Foundation as a result of the virtual event. Since then, the SoupFest team has remained philanthropically involved through the same fund, which allows those interested to donate in Battaglia’s memory.
“We decided that was the best way to operate the charity aspect of things,” Sekas said. “That way everything we support is in Nick’s name, in his memory.”
With permission from Battaglia’s family, this year’s installment of SoupFest will partner with the Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board of Franklin County to support a cause that aims to help save lives, Harris said.
“With ADAMH, it is the most logical step that we can take at this point,” Harris said. “If it’s something as simple as having a booth at a silly little soup and music festival providing resources for others to potentially save another life, it’s worth it.”
SoupFest will also partner with the Mid-Ohio Food Collective, an umbrella organization supporting more than 600 local partners and distributors of food and home goods, according to a SoupFest press release.
“It’s the most important thing that I’m doing with my life,” Harris said. “I could bet my paycheck that Wes and Jake and everybody who’s involved in SoupFest would say the same thing.”
SoupFest will take place at the Valley Dale Ballroom, located at 1590 Sunbury Rd. General admission will be for those ages 18 or older and tickets start at $50, according to the Eventbrite page.
