Also This Weekend, Mackinac Island Lilac Festival

For those of you in the Western Upper Peninsula we suggested checking out the annual Houghton & Hancock Bridgefest this weekend. However, that’s a long drive for those of you on the Eastern end of the Upper Peninsula. So another option is the 59th Annual Mackinac Island Lilac Festival.

You better make your plans fast! This weekend will be the end of the 10-day celebration, during Mackinac Island’s biggest festival of the year at the Upper Peninsula’s largest tourist attraction.

History of the Lilac Festival:

Celebrating Mackinac’s lilac collection began in 1949 after a conversation with Evangilene “Ling” Horn and Nurse Stella King who encouraged the then teen and today’s Mackinac Island Carriage Tours veterinarian Dr. Bill Chambers to have a parade on Lilac Sunday. The idea was to bring people to the Island to enjoy a great horse drawn parade amidst the lovely lilacs that fragrance the Island in June. What began as a one day event called the Mackinac Island Lilac Day has blossomed into a ten day festival.

– Mackinac Island Lilac Festival’s website

Here are just a few of the activities for the closing weekend:

• Bike tour
• Harbor cruise
• Beer tasting
• Comedy with Stu Stuart
• Garden Party: An Evening of Lilacs
• Epona & Barkus Parade
• 3rd Annual Mackinac Island Dog & Pony Show
• Tricky Dicky and the Spoonmen Live in Concert
• Barrington Children’s Choir Concert
• Scottville Clown Band
• Scottish Tattoo with Grand Traverse Drum & Pipe Band
• Lilac Festival Grand Parade
• And yes, of course there is all the fudge you can eat

Check it out. Always plenty to do in the Upper Peninsula. Stay tuned for more updates, and feel free to subscribe to stay up to date on what’s going on across the Upper Peninsula this summer.

Photo courtesy of jdurchen, on Flickr