Michigan’s National Cherry Festival
It’s almost time for the National Cherry Festival. Held each year in Traverse City, Michigan, it spotlights tart cherries — the kind baked up into pies. This year’s event is Saturday (June 29, 2019), through July 6, 2019.
Many of the events take place at the Open Space (near the corner of Union Street and Grandview Parkway), but events are scheduled at multiple locations across town. Here are a few:
The Very Cherry Flying Pancake Breakfast starts at 8 a.m. Saturday. The Adult Cherry Pit Spit Contest is 6 p.m. each evening.
A Kids Cherry Teddy Bear Tea starts at 3 p.m. Sunday (June 30, 2019). Also on the schedule are pie baking lessons for kids and adults, and daily pie-eating contests.
Of course there will be plenty of cherries for sale. The Cherry Farmers Market is open from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. throughout the festival. And, the kids will delight in meeting Super Cherry.
According to the organizers, sometime around 1910, cherry growers in the Grand Traverse area began to hold informal “blessing of the blossoms” ceremonies each year at blossom time in May. This became the “Blessing of the Blossoms Festival” May 22, 1925, when Traverse City businesses partnered with the local cherry farmers to promote the growing industry. In 1931 the Michigan state legislature passed a resolution making the Cherry Festival a national celebration. The National Cherry Festival officially became a week-long celebration in 1968.
By the way, Traverse City set a world record by baking the world’s largest cherry pie on July 25, 1987. The pie was 17 ft 6 in and weighed in at 28,350 pounds.
Here’s a look at a past festival:
(Photo and video courtesy of National Cherry Festival)
