It’s not summer yet, but it certainly feels a bit like summer in northern Michigan this week. In celebration of the warm weather, The Ticker is looking ahead to Traverse City’s busy summer festival calendar and what the area’s iconic peak season events might look like in 2023.

Bayshore Marathon

Falling each year on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, the Bayshore Marathon has long served as the unofficial kickoff for northern Michigan’s summer tourism season. Fresh off a post-COVID comeback and 40th anniversary celebration in 2022, the Bayshore is back again for in-person races in 2023. At the moment, there are still spots remaining in all three distances (10K, half marathon, and full marathon), but space is dwindling: as of press time, there were just 87 spots left in the half marathon and 301 left in the 10K.

Notably, this year’s Bayshore will feature a robust field of elite runners – a growing area of focus for host organization Traverse City Track Club as the race continues to gain national pedigree.

Traverse City Horse Shows

Traverse City Horse Shows (TCHS) will be back at Flintfields Horse Park in Acme this summer, with competitive events kicking off on June 7 and running through late September. One highlight of this season, according to Marketing and Communications Manager Gary Howe, is the return of TCHS’s “Charity Partner” program, which launched in 2022. Through that program, weekly “Grand Prix” events at the festival give back 100 percent of ticket sales to local charities. Howe says TCHS will host over a dozen nonprofits as beneficiaries of that program this summer.

Interlochen

Interlochen Center for the Arts has now announced the majority of its concert slate for the 2023 Interlochen Arts Festival. The list currently includes Greensky Bluegrass (June 26), Elvis Costello & The Imposters (June 27), Mat Kearney (June 30), Styx (July 12), Detroit Symphony Orchestra (July 22), Five for Fighting (July 23), Donny Osmond (July 24), The Temptations & The Four Tops (July 27), Train (August 10), Lindsey Stirling (August 11), The Lone Bellow (August 17), The Concert: A Tribute to ABBA (August 18), and The Beach Boys (August 19).

National Cherry Festival

Earlier this week, The Ticker sat down with Kat Paye, executive director of the National Cherry Festival (NCF), to get a preview of this year’s 97th annual festival. Here's what we learned.

>Most (but not all) of the concerts have been announced: “We have eight nights and six concerts have been announced, so we’re getting there,” Paye says. So far, the slate includes Flo Rida (July 2), Theory of a Deadman and Skillet (July 4), 3 Doors Down (July 5), Jordan Davis (July 6), Chicago (July 7), and Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy (July 8).

>A few popular events are making big returns: Two extremely beloved events from past festivals are making a return this year. The first is bingo, which will be held at Clinch Park July 1-July 7 from 11am-3pm and then again from 6-10pm. Also back this year are the festival finale fireworks, which Paye says haven’t happened since 2018. TC’s Fourth of July fireworks are hosted by the Traverse City Boom Boom Club, while the finale fireworks are put on by NCF itself. That second set of fireworks used to be a staple of the festival, but has been absent since 2018.

>NCF is hitting some big milestones: This summer marks the 75th class of NCF’s Junior Royalty Program, which names a “prince” and “princess” from each local elementary school. “So we’ll be celebrating those kids big time in the Community Royale Parade, and then you’ll be able to see some really exciting rolling memorabilia from years past as part of the parade floats,” Paye teases. In addition, Paye says the festival team is already planning ahead for 2026, which will mark the 100th Cherry Festival.

>The Union Street Bridge project could require some audibles: Some festival plans are up in the air pending the completion of the Union Street Bridge project, including parade routes and a decision on whether to bring the Cherry Kids Fun Run and the Cherry Mile back downtown. Current construction timelines have bridge work wrapping up on June 30 – the day before the festival starts. “We’re confident in the construction crews, but that timeline is a little nerve-racking for us,” Paye says. “So, we’re hopeful, but we’re working with the city on alternate routes for both our parades and those races.”

Traverse City Film Festival

The big question mark for Traverse City’s summer 2023 events calendar is the Traverse City Film Festival (TCFF). That event made a comeback last year in modified form, utilizing theater space at the AMC Cherry Blossom rather than returning to traditional TCFF venues like Lars Hockstad Auditorium, Milliken Auditorium, and the City Opera House.

As of now, TCFF has made no formal announcements about plans for this summer. Angie Forton, the executive director of the State Theatre and the Bijou by the Bay, tells The Ticker that more news will likely be coming sometime this month. “I believe it was early April when the festival details were announced last year,” she says. “I anticipate this will be the case again this year.”

Details about 2022’s festival – including festival dates and the hiring of Festival Director Johanna Evans – broke on April 21, with the festival ultimately running July 26-31.

When asked if TCFF has yet filed for any permits with the City of Traverse City – whether to close Front Street for the festival’s opening night party, or to use the Open Space for free evening movies – City Clerk Benjamin Marentette says his office hasn’t received anything yet.

Parallel 45

One Traverse City summer staple that won’t be on the calendar this year is the Parallel 45 (P45) Summer Theatre Festival. In February, P45 announced that it would be cancelling all of its spring and summer 2023 programming due to financial strain.

Despite that announcement, P45 did carry on with limited programming throughout the winter months, including a “Reading Series” at the new Alluvion space at Commongrounds. When asked whether locals might see P45 mount similarly small-scale theatre offerings this summer in lieu of its typical full-fledged summer productions, Erin Whiting – board president – confirms that P45 will be taking the summer off entirely.

“We're taking this pause to repair what COVID did to P45, and to arts organizations across the country,” Whiting says. “We are working to stabilize financially, while listening to our community and strategizing the best way forward that honors our artists and our audiences. We are so excited to resume bringing innovative, live theatre to the Grand Traverse region very soon."

Up North Pride

Once a June fixture, Up North Pride’s signature Pride Week – which includes a visibility rally and march, a drag night, and a “Big Gay Brunch and Picnic” – shifted to autumn in 2021 and has yet to revert to its summertime roots. This year’s Pride Week is no exception, with dates of September 27-October 1.

“We found that having our main celebration in the fall was just a little bit easier,” explains Nick Viox, director of programming and operations for Up North Pride. “There is more availability at that time of year with a lot of our vendors and a lot of the people that are joining us for the event. Whether it’s our volunteer base or just regular attendees, a lot of those people happen to work in the hospitality industry, and they are heavily busy in June.”

While Viox suspects Pride Week will be staying in the fall for the foreseeable future, Up North Pride is still planning a variety of programming throughout June for Pride Month. Summer events this year include a Pride Carnival at NMC on June 3 (featuring live music, a big slide, a rock climbing wall, and more), Drag Bingo at Iron Fish Distillery on June 9, a Rainbow Run at the Boardman Loop on June 24, and Drag Brunch at the Short’s Pull Barn in Elk Rapids on June 25.