Published: July 02, 2009 07:05 am      

Editorial: Have fun during fest

It's 48 hours or so and counting.

The sidewalks, shops, hotels, motels and campgrounds are already starting to fill.

Mother Nature seems ready to cooperate; after days of rain the weather is supposed to break for the weekend, with at least partly sunny skies and highs in the 70s through Sunday.

And, yes, there aren't any local cherries yet.

Yup, it's time again for the National Cherry Festival and for the next nine or 10 days the Traverse City area will be playing host to tens of thousands of visitors from all over the state and the Midwest and beyond. Ready or not.

For some area residents, festival week is a time to get out of town so they can avoid the traffic and the crowds and, if it's a Blue Angels year, four or five days of roaring jets. Others simply go about their business, pretending that it's just another summer week and hoping for the chaos to end.

That's fine. For a lot of people, though, the best way to get through festival week is to go with the flow and take advantage of the food, the entertainment and the events and, yes, the crowds.

The weekend will start with a bang Friday night when a number of northern Michigan towns shoot off a few fireworks to celebrate the Fourth of July. Displays are set for Friday night in Bay Harbor, Bellaire, Gaylord, Indian River, Leland, Manistee and Thompsonville.

More than 20 communities, including Traverse City (over West Bay), have displays planned for Saturday the Fourth. There will also be fireworks that night after the Beach Bums baseball game at Weurful Park.

Grazing will start in earnest Saturday at the food court at the Open Space and across Grandview Parkway. There will be everything from cherries to bratwurst to Chinese food and Gibby's Fries. It's a chance to feed your fried food demons in relative anonymity.

There will be air shows on both Saturday and Sunday. A midway with rides and games will again go up near Union Street and Grandview Parkway.

There's nightly entertainment at the stage area near the Open Space and a tent for tasting adult beverages.

There's a volleyball tournament and lots of beach and park things for kids. There are cherry pie eating contests and pit spitting contests. You can pull your boat close enough to the beach to wade ashore.

There are two parades, a couple running races and, of course, a host of places to shop and eat downtown and out of town. And on Saturday night, the 11th, more fireworks over West Bay.

If you can't find something you want to do or see or take part in, you're not trying. You'll have 51 weeks to rest up, so have some fun.

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