OUR STORY
Cheers, Mate! We're so glad you found us!
For over 20 years, we’ve been turning events into unforgettable experiences. It all began when Curtis, as a teenager, attended a corporate Family Day outing and had an absolute blast! His love for local carnivals and that event sparked the idea: this was the perfect business for him.
In 1996, Curtis launched what is known today as Awesome Family Entertainment LLC while still in high school. Not letting his age hold him back, he biked to a local print shop to create business cards. One fateful day, he bumped into a festival planner who became his first client — and decades later, that same organization still trusts us for their entertainment needs!
From that humble beginning, we’ve grown into the AWESOME event partner you know today!
Through the years, Curtis created a network of reliable, dedicated and friendly entertainers and vendors — all Awesomely talented. Growing from simply sending a few Awesome costumed performers and a single bounce house to backyard birthday parties, AFE has earned a reputation for hosting sophisticated events, literally rolling out a red carpet for guests to enjoy aerialists and fire dancers. Some 2,400+ times a year, clients stop by the AFE warehouse to pick up a popcorn machine or dunk tank for the weekend — or seek help planning full-day entertainment packages with carnival games, concessions, tables, tents and a mechanical bull ride.
We have become the most diverse, self-sufficient amusement company in the USA!
We now serve clients across Ohio and into the surrounding states, but Awesome Entertainment is still a family run company. Curtis infuses his decades of global performance experience into Awesome Entertainment. His husband Thor enriches AFE with his sophisticated international flair for events. In addition to its core group of original family and friends, Awesome Entertainment employs more than 50 full-time Team Members during its peak summer season.
Outgrowing a modest location on Johnstown Road near the Columbus airport in 2018 AFE launched operations in a warehouse five times larger — 32,500 sq. ft. — on the outskirts of Bexley, Ohio.
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“I’m a big kid in a CEO world,” Curtis says. “You have to run a business as a professional, but in a kid’s world, you don’t have to grow up.”
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AFE continues to grow and excel, even adding to its list of awards and honors the recent recognition for Small Business Excellence. AFE has been featured in the Columbus Dispatch, noted for its Most Awesome Graduation Parties. We even popped up in Columbus Parent magazine for the Best Party Ideas for Kids. And we’ve been highlighted many times in This Week neighborhood news.
We invite you to take a look around our website and turn loose your imagination. Then give us a call to help make your event AWESOME.
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