Southwest Michigan Festivals: Family, Food and Fun-in-the-sun
Each annual festival – there’s one just about every summer weekend – focuses squarely on families, food and fun-in-the-sun. Most of the activities are free or available for just a small fee.
Small-town tradition plays a big role in the area’s celebrations, so there are no games-of-chance or alcohol at most events. Many festivals trace their origins back to the days when agriculture was key to the area’s survival, and celebrating the planting and harvest were key to the year’s social calendar.
Today, ag-tourism wears that mantle, and that means big, family-centered festivals filled with good, fresh food – and lots of it!
Here’s a sample of the area’s largest and most popular festivals. Specific dates and some entry fees will vary from year-to-year; more information and a current calendar of events is available through the Southwestern Michigan Tourist Council at www.swmichigan.org or by calling 269-925-6301, weekdays between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m.
May’s Blossomtime Festival
In the heart of the country’s fruit belt, St. Joseph and Benton Harbor still jointly host this springtime blossom-laden event as they’ve done since 1906. Blossomtime – Michigan’s oldest festival – is the state’s largest multi-community affair, a week-long extravaganza culminating in early May in the lavishly beautiful annual Grand Floral Parade.
This colorful festival kicks off each year on Blossom Sunday with the traditional Blessing of the Blossoms, usually held deep in a blooming orchard among the hundreds of thousands of fruit trees in Michigan’s southwestern-most county. The evening is given to an 1858-style baseball game, hosted by the House of David Echoes, whose hirsute predecessors once sported the famous traveling House of David ball team.
During Blossom Week, the Goodwill Tour visits the participating communities, enjoying friendly hospitality in breakfasts, lunches, brunches and parties as the main event – the Grand Floral Parade – approaches.
Although the two host communities combined have just 17,000 residents, they’re home to more than 250,000 visitors by the time the Grand Floral Parade steps off in downtown St. Joseph on the Saturday of Blossom Week. For two hours, more than 100 parade units thrill spectators who line the parade route through town, across the river and into Benton Harbor.
The dozens of floral-decked floats compete for top prizes in a host of categories, and the dazzling procession includes 23 participating communities’ floats carrying the community queens and courts. The huge parade also includes marching bands, antique autos and trucks, performing motorcycle and unicycle units, clowns, cartoon characters and, of course, local politicians.!
There’s no fee for the parade, and most parking is free as well. For more detailed information and a list of current activities, visit www.blossomtimefestival.org, or call the Festival offices at 269-926-7397 weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
July’s Venetian Festival
Promotions for this fabulous mid-summer lakefront festival typically suggest that visitors to tiny St. Joseph can join 200,000 of their closest friends on the beach and bluffs to enjoy a famous feast for the eyes and appetites.
That’s not far from the mark! The Venetian Festival began in 1979 as a small lighted boat parade along the St. Joseph River at the confluence of Lake Michigan. It’s grown to become the region’s largest summer festival and offers an awesome range of activities for summer-lovers of all ages.
After the traditional Blessing of the River, the traditional musical, lighted boat parade is joined now by a classic boat parade. But although the boating traditions continue, today the Venetian Festival is best known for its non-stop food and off-water festivities, competitions and music.
Food vendors include dozens of local restaurateurs and many unique food concessions that stretch for more than a half-mile on the path to the beach, including folk, gourmet and ethnic offerings that grow in diversity each year.
Music has become a major part of this festival, with three live-music stages on the waterfront, all with top-name performers, plus a half-dozen free live musical acts on the bluff and in downtown St. Joseph, ranging from bluegrass to new age to Tex-Mex to rock. There’s also a lively beachfront carnival, a River Run/Walk, craft shows, a big-band dance in the Starlight Pavilion, sand sculpture competitions, and the region’s largest fireworks display over Lake Michigan to conclude the four-day fest.
Because so many of the community’s summer visitors are young families, the festival includes an entire agenda of activities just for kids, and the youngsters also have their own carnival rides and midway, separate from the typically livelier rides enjoyed by teens and adults.
Admittance to the festival is free, and there are many free performances and activities, although some individual events and food concessions charge fees for their wares. For more information and a detailed list of events as they’re scheduled, visit www.venetian.org, or call the office at 269-983-7917 Mondays through Friday, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
August’s Berrien County Youth Fair
Just down the river from St. Joseph, the annual Berrien County Youth Fair is a much-anticipated week-long celebration that brings together the best and brightest of the county’s young entrepreneurs.
Hundreds of area youngsters enter their hand-raised animals, crafts, vegetables, flowers and other exhibits to be judged – and often, sold – in hundreds of categories and activities in the sprawling Youth Fairgrounds in Berrien Springs.
Each year, more than 100,000 visitors pass through the gates to celebrate the region’s oldest and largest agricultural-themed youth fair, and to watch youngsters show and perform with their prized farm animals and livestock. The fairground’s numerous animal pens and stables are packed with visitors from “the city” who stroll through the big buildings for a close-up look at cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits, turkeys, geese, chickens, llamas and ducks. Three gigantic pole buildings house dozens of booths presenting the always-popular commercial exhibits.
All week, from dawn to midnight, the blazing lights of the Fair’s huge carnival midway act as a backdrop for rows and rows of food vendors, making descriptions of “fair food” an actual part of the local lexicon each August.
The huge grandstand draws thousands to the nightly sounds of some of country music’s greatest performers, and dozens of smaller shows are scheduled throughout the fairgrounds each day and evening. Excitement not to miss is the incredibly noisy, diesel-powered tractor pull, big brother to another traditional core event: the annual tractor and farm equipment display that fills acres with the latest in ag technology.
For exact dates, times and a calendar of events, contact the Youth Fair at www.bcyf.org, or call the Fair offices at 269-473-4251.
