Twins Days Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio

A town named after two brothers

Twinsburg, a city of about 19,000 people halfway between Cleveland and Akron, owes its name to a pair of identical twins. Around 1818, Moses and Aaron Wilcox of Killingworth, Connecticut, bought about 4,000 acres in a settlement then called Millsville and sold parcels cheaply to draw in settlers. They made the locals an offer: six acres for a public square and 20 dollars toward the first school, if the place would become Twinsburg. The deal was done.

According to the festival's own history, the brothers were so alike that only close friends could tell them apart. They were lifelong business partners, married sisters, had the same number of children, fell ill with the same disease and died within hours of each other. They share a single grave in Twinsburg's Locust Grove Cemetery.

From a bicentennial party to a world record

In 1976, while Twinsburg was planning its part in the US bicentennial, organizers set aside one day for twins. It opened with the dedication of a Wilcox monument on the town square. Only a few dozen pairs came, but the town kept going, and 38 sets showed up the next year. The festival grew from there. Organizers say more than 91,000 sets of twins and multiples have attended over its first 50 festivals, and Guinness World Records lists it as the largest annual gathering of twins in the world.

The 2020 festival went virtual during the pandemic, and the 50th celebration came in 2025. Each year has a theme, from video games to pirates, and 2026 was Totally Two-bular.

What happens over the weekend

Twins Days is held on the first full weekend of August, mostly at Glen Chamberlin Park. The schedule includes the Double Take Parade, twin contests, a talent show, a 5K fun run and walk, a golf outing, volleyball and cornhole tournaments and a game show that tests how in sync pairs really are. Triplets, quadruplets and other multiples are welcome too, and there are events for twinless twins who have lost their sibling.

An unwritten rule makes it a visual feast: many identical twins dress exactly alike, from matching hats to matching shoes.

A living laboratory

With thousands of identical and fraternal twins in one place, the festival has long drawn scientists from universities and companies who run voluntary studies on site, comparing pairs to learn how genes and environment shape everything from faces to health. For many visitors, though, the real draw is simpler: a weekend where being a twin is completely ordinary. The 52nd festival is set for August 6 to 8, 2027.

← The Twin Capitals of the WorldNine-Banded Armadillo Quadruplets →