Pick a topic, any topic. And somewhere in the Midwest, it’s likely to have a festival built up around it. They’re usually annual, and they include the biggies like Holland’s Tulip Time Festival and Traverse City’s Cherry Festival which draw tens, probably hundreds, of thousands of visitors. At the other end of the continuum is a cluster of other annual fests that draw, well, a lot fewer visitors. Sprinkled in between are gatherings of varying size and significance for the traveler.
“Festival” is not exactly a clean category. For example, if you go to Festivals.com, you will find annual events of every stripe listed. I did a quick scan of a few Midwestern states and found a bewildering variety of annual events. Yes, festivals were there. But so were things called Taste of Something (as in Taste of Chicago), Cook-Offs, Something Days (as in Harvest Days), Jamborees, Pow Wows, county fairs, antique fairs, art fairs and gallery hops. All on a site whose middle name is festivals.
The best (most enjoyable) festivals I’ve attended have been small-town affairs. There’s something appealing to me about small-town folks doing their big once-a-year-every-year kind of thing. Good people working hard for something in which they believe strongly. So strongly, in fact, that they’re willing to invest their time, talent and hard-earned dollars for the cause.
One of the most memorable festivals of this kind we stumbled onto one August completely by accident. Cruising along M-134 in Michigan’s UP, we discovered the Les Cheneaux Islands Antique Wooden Boat Show and Festival of Arts. Each year in August, the event draws about 170 entries from as far away as California and Florida. It’s been around since 1976 in little Hessel, Michigan. To learn more about this unusual gathering of beautiful wooden watercraft, visit the Les Cheneaux Islands Tourist Association website.
Of course, not all festivals are small fries. Many of the ethnic and cultural festivals in major cities are very large. Detroit has offerings in this category, and so does Milwaukee and other big Midwest towns. So whatever your taste, you’ll likely find a festival to fit it.
I’ve already given you one good source for finding festivals. It is www.festivals.com. You can search the Midwest or the entire U.S. by month. But probably a more specific and targeted approach is to contact the state tourism office for the states you want to explore. You might also check with your library or favorite book store for festival directories.
If you are a member of AAA, their regional guide books are ideal sources of information. And, in addition to listing festivals and other attractions city by city, they provide lists of hotels and restaurants. Best of all, the guide books are free to members.
Checking out a summer festival and exploring the offerings of a new city may not be among your regular travel plans. But with gas prices at or near $3.50 a gallon, it might be a worthwhile alternative to a longer road trip. So soon, I’ll give you specifics on a few festivals you’ve probably never considered.
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