It’s good to be blue
All things blueberry are coming to Marquette tomorrow for the 13th Annual Blueberry Festival. With prized produce and live entertainment taking over the downtown, it’s good to be blue.
Blueberries are a healthy, often overlooked snack, but starting tomorrow they will be the main attraction in Downtown Marquette.
“People can come down and browse the different vendors, booths will be displaying different products, of course we will have some farmers from the area with blueberries to sell. People can come down and buy a quart or two of blueberries to enjoy and there will be a lot of fun children games, live music and it’s just a really fun event to have in downtown Marquette,” said Samantha Collins, Promotions and Event Coordinator, Downtown Development Association.
Close to 100 vendors signed up to participate in the event, which is expected bring in a crop of more than three thousand fruit lovers. One of the highlights of the festival is the kids talent show. You will see everything from signers, dancers and even some very special hoola–hooping.
The talent show starts at 11 A.M. and goes until 1:00 P.M. Live music will take place after that and won’t stop until the festival closes. If you start feeling the groove, you can stop by the Second Skin Clothing Store for some free dance lessons from local teachers taking part in the Blueberry Dance Festival.
A few downtown mainstays have decided to go blue by preparing specially made blueberry delicacies. You can drop inside Donckers for blueberry bark, fudge, truffles or clusters. And when you’re getting a bit thirsty, head to the Vierling for it’s infamous blueberry beer.
“We got the best blueberry extract we could get, married it with our wheat beer and we came up with our blueberry wheat. Ever since then it has been one of our more popular beers, we’ve never been able to take it off the menu, people come marcing in and they demand the blueberry beer and it’s all thanks to the blueberry festival,” said Terry Doyle, Owner, Vierling’s Restaurant and Bar.
Although the official Blueberry Festival ends on Friday, the Downtown Commons’ Farmers Market will keep things going into the weekend as they play host to the Blueberry Pie Baking Contest.
“It’s for amateurs bakers only, there is no pre–registration required, no fee, no age limit but it does need to be a pie,” said Myra Zyburt, Manaager, Marquette Farmers Market.
Along with the pie itself, officials ask that participants bring their recipe along with them so it can be added amongst the others on a booklet. That way, the blueberry goodies can live on long after the festival closes.