Just when the region needed it most, the National Cherry Festival came to the rescue.
Thanks in part to an ideal combination of dates, great weather and festival events, the 2008 Cherry Festival set attendance records and filled cash registers all over the region.
The stage was set when the Fourth of July fell on the Friday before the normal Saturday opening of the festival. Local veterans asked that the festival's food court, midway and beer tent open that day to cater to thousands who were expected to flock to the Open Space to watch the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels aerobatics team practice for their Saturday and Sunday air shows and then stick around for a veterans-sponsored air show and fireworks.
The festival and the city said yes, and the scene was set.
By Friday afternoon, the beaches along West Bay and the Open Space were busy; by the time the fireworks went off that night, they were jammed.
The Blue Angels packed them in on Saturday and Sunday, the weather held through festival week and visitors by the tens of thousands descended on the city.
While there is no exact way to measure the crowds, anecdotal evidence and year-to-year comparisons by many area merchants showed it was a record-setter. Wicksell Distributing, which provided beer for the festival's beer tent, reported that July 11 was the best day in company history.
Five out of six local Tom's Food Stores had record sales, while Oleson's Food Stores, Sam's Club and Glen's Market all reported high sales.
The Traverse City Visitors Bureau reported a 6.4 percent increase in the number of people who stopped for information.
The Holiday Inn West Bay had record numbers all week.
J&S Hamburg's Open Space food tent did about double the business it did last year. Manager Bill Coty said it was the biggest festival week he's seen in the 11 years he's been working the tent.
Grand Traverse Pie Company sales were the biggest in the business' previous 12 years.
While there's no way to know why so many visitors flocked here this year, there were plenty of theories -- that people who usually go to more distant or pricey destinations came here instead because of the sour economy, or those who come later in the year arrived during festival week to get more bang for their buck.
Whatever the reason, a summer tourist season that likely had a lot of people worried started with a bang and injected some much-needed cash into the local economy.
While the Cherry Festival has its fans, it also has detractors who complain about crowds and noise. The Blue Angels in particular raise hackles when they boom across the city every other year.
But ours is a tourist economy, and tourists need a reason to come. This year, the Cherry Festival outdid itself.
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