Food fest-goers weather the storm
Food fest-goers weather the storm
By SCOTT SWANSON
MARQUETTE — Chris Patterson was enjoying her Jerk Shack Caribbean chicken when the sky started to fall Saturday afternoon.
While a short but heavy downpour sent attendees of the 21st annual International Food Fest scrambling for higher ground, the Negaunee resident said the rain wouldn’t keep her away for good.
“I’ll come back when the rain stops,” she said, taking cover beneath a tent. “Maybe tomorrow.”
Kicking off the Fourth of July weekend, the food fest got under way Saturday at Mattson Lower Harbor park. As always, the event features a wide array of culinary choices: A&W Restaurant, the Beacon House, Fazoli’s, the Jerk Shack, K’s Oriental, Rampagin’ Cajun, Steer and Stein, Sweet and Salty, the Thai House and Vango’s all have booths this year.
“We have the same restaurants (as last year),” said Jodi Thams, co-chair of the event, which is being put on by the Marquette Exchange Club. “Everyone always wants to come back every year.”
This is the second year that Bessemer resident Matt Metzerott has brought the Rampagin’ Cajun to the food fest. The chef spoke enthusiastically about the event and area itself.
“We had such a good time last year, we’re excited they brought us back,” he said. “The crowd seems to love our food, and we enjoy bringing it to them.”
The Cajun’s specialties include crawfish etouffee, jambayala, catfish, and, of course, deep-fried frog legs.
“It’s something different,” Metzerott said.
In the non-food related department, the Lifeteen Youth Group from St. Peter Cathedral in Marquette has once again set up a tent offering games for kids, including ring toss, a duck pond, bean-bag toss and face-painting. Lifeteen is a youth ministry group for high school students.
“This is a ministry opportunity,” said Larry Boburka, Lifeteen coordinator. “People see we’re out in the community, supporting community events.”
Assisting Boburka with the kids’ games, student Lindsey Whitfield said she enjoyed working with the children.
“It’s fun,” she said. “It’s cool to see them when they win a big prize and they’re all excited.”
In order to purchase alcohol, people will need to buy $1 wristbands — different colors for every night. The proceeds from the wristband sales this year will go to Project Lifesaver, which works to equip Alzheimer’s patients with a GPS tracking device in the form of a wristwatch.
The Exchange Club has raised more than $540,000 from the food fest since its inception, all of which has been given back to community groups such as the Salvation Army, Bay Cliff Health Camp and Beacon House.
Last year’s event raised more than $40,000, according to Co-chair Steve Snowaert — a record amount.
“It all depends on the weather, but obviously we’d like to hit that again,” Snowaert said.
No rain was expected this afternoon, while a 40 percent chance of rain was forecasted for this evening by the National Weather Service in Negaunee Township.
During the Saturday afternoon downpour, only about .16 of an inch of rain fell at the Negaunee Township office, but Marquette was harder hit, meteorologist Robin Turner said. A severe thunderstorm watch for Marquette County was called off early Saturday evening.
“We had some pretty warm, moist unstable air — this allowed thunderstorms to fire along the front and several of these became severe,” Turner said. “The front is pushing through, and we have drier, more stable air coming in behind the system.”
The food fest runs from noon to dusk through Tuesday. In addition to food, attendees can expect to hear several bands throughout the weekend, watch a firemen’s competition on Tuesday and get autographs from Olympic gold medal winning short-track speedskater Shani Davis, also on Tuesday.
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