It’s coming up on a weekend in Michigan and you are looking for something to do, but nothing is going on in your town. So, what do you do? You visit www.michignafun.com and find a small town festival or event to go to. It’s a great resource, as you can search by date and/or region. If you are looking for weekend activities be sure to set your search parameters to include the Thursday before and the Monday after the weekend. Some festivals start out on Thursday.
We found three food festivals to go to and they were all very different. The first one we went to was the Michigan Rib Fest. We had gone to this one last year, but they moved the location to a better spot. This year it was in a nice cut field out behind Canterbury Village in Orion Twp. Last year it was downtown Royal Oak in an asphalt parking lot. It was nice to not have all that hot asphalt to deal with this year. There were plenty of food trucks that circled the tent where you could sit and enjoy the ribs. There were other selections to choose from, but when you are at a Rib Fest, one should at least try the ribs. While at the Rib Fest there are other activities to do, such as the monster truck rides, bounce houses for the kids, the portable rock wall was also there. Then the various non-food vendors were located throughout Canterbury Village, which made for a nice shopping experience. The one activity that was fun to watch was the pig and weiner dog races.
Next up we visited my favorite Michigan city to visit, Frankenmuth. Frankenmuth always seems to have some kind of festival going on or at least a majority of their weekends something is going on. This time though it was on a Thursday afternoon/evening and it was the Frankenmuth Funtown Chowdown Food Truck Festival. This takes place the 2nd Thursday of the month from May through September. The location for this festival is out in the asphalt parking lot between River Place Shops and The Bavarian Inn Hotel. So, if it’s sunny and hot out, it really heats up. There were small tents for you to sit under to eat your goodies, plus tables and chairs sitting out in the sun. This festival starts at 3 pm in the afternoon, so it is very hot to start. You will want to bring your sunscreen, a hat and stay hydrated. The food trucks are located around the perimeter of the parking lot with the tents and tables in the middle.
We enjoyed one of the BBQ vendor trucks – Clyde’s Pit. I got the meat only brisket. It was very tasty. I did not have to put sauce on it but after tasting the sauce I opted to put it lightly on it. The one food truck that I could not miss was The Bavarian Inn Restaurant Cluck Truck. They have their famous buttered noodles that you can get as a side dish in the pint and quart size. We opted for the pint and split it. They were temperature hot, the butter was all melted with the saltine crackers crumbled on the top. This is just like you were in the restaurant. I highly recommend trying them if you haven’t.
No trip to Frankenmuth for us is not complete until we have visited the Cherry Republic. We always trade in our empty bottles and replenish them with their black cherry cream soda. They have a tasting bar for you to sample their craft sodas and their wines for those 21 and up. Throughout the store there are samples of their Michigan made cherry products.
For the third food festival we went to The Taste of Brighton. Brighton is located off of I-96 and US-23 in Michigan. The festival was on Main Street and it was blocked off at Grand River Ave. Local vendors lined the street with various offerings. We walked the length of the festival checking out all the vendors and then on the way back through we picked a couple of places to eat. First we stopped at Ciao Amici’s for their bread crumb crusted chicken tender on a skewer. It was very tender and tasty. Plus it came with a pineapple dipping sauce. We will be returning during normal business hours. Our second stop was for BBQ, of course. This is a new restaurant in town called Ginopolis. The pulled pork sliders were very good. We sat and ate our BBQ while watching the ladies from ______ doing their dancing up on the fabric.My only issue with this festival was that the schedule of events was not easy to find. It was only on their Facebook page and the graphic was tiny. You had to download the graphic so that you could enlarge it enough to read it. There were comments on the posting to let them know that it was too small. Hopefully next year’s schedule will be easier to read.
These are just three of many festivals that take place year round in Michigan. To find one in a town near you please visit www.michiganfun.com.
Do you have a favorite festival? Please feel free to let me know in the comments along with a link.