Chassell Strawberry Festival sure to delight crowds
Chassell Strawberry Festival sure to delight crowds
LAURA KIRBY
DMG Writer
CHASSELL — It’s a little known fact that eating Chassell strawberries will make you smarter, thinner and better looking.
And while their powers might not be scientifically proven, “They’re certainly gonna make you happier,” said Frank Murphy, Lions Club member and Chassell Strawberry Festival coordinator.
The secret recipe harbored in the town for more than 50 years and celebrated each year by a slice of classic summertime fun can probably be attributed to traces of minerals in the ground or the Upper Peninsula climate, Murphy said.
Visitors this year’s festival, which runs July 7 to 8, should be impressed with a new look downtown, Murphy said. A 10-year “beautification” process including new sidewalks, old-fashioned street lights, landscaping and park benches will finish up this week giving a small town feel in time for returning big crowds, who come for the sunshine, strawberry shortcake and entertainment.
No longer be the epicenter of the juicy fruits, since the number of strawberry growers whittled from it’s peak in 1939 (when there were about 100 members of the Copper Country Strawberry Grower’s Association) to just a handful remaining in the area today. But the festival itself has boomed ever since the very first event in 1949, attended by then Michigan Governor. G. Mennen Williams, Murphy said.
Relatively new to the festival’s line up for example is the quilt show now in it’s second or third year and fast becoming a stop on the map for the mid western quilting community Murphy says. Entries in this year’s show on display at the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church come from as far as Minnesota and Wisconsin he adds. The show is sponsored by the Portage Quilt House and Friends.
Saturday from 1- 3 p.m. at the Chassell boat launch free rides will be offered on Michigan Tech University’s ‘Agassiz’ research vessel. Custom built for aquatic research in 2002 the vessel’s pilot house features an electronic navigation system and two oceanographic winch - davit systems on deck.
While this is the only new aspect to the festival, every other event has continued to get more recognition each year from the parades to the beauty pageant and the making of a small-town celebrity when the Strawberry Queen is crowned Friday Murphy said.
The children’s parade scheduled 6 p.m. Friday at the Park Pavilion and continuing to Centennial Park awards prizes to every entry, and precedes the Strawberry Parade at 11 a.m. Saturday says Murphy. “If you’ve never been to the Chassell Strawberry Festival Parade you’re missing a classic slice of small town Americana,” he summarizes
Expect a lively troop of marching fruits, bands and general comedy and creativity with entries in the antique, commercial, equestrian, humorous, music, patriotic and strawberry divisions, all competing for cash prizes.
Last year’s winners in the antique category Gramma’s Antiques did a ‘Da Yooper’ theme and strawberry outfits by Kelly Jorgenson took the top prize for fruity entries in the Strawberry Division.
Attendees at waterfront events this year can revel with good hair days and nights since the Lions Club and Township installed wind curtains on the open air band area near the beach Murphy says.
Festival sponsors the Chassell Lions Club and Township committee have been making constant waterfront improvements for the past ten years, building a covered coking area, two boat launches and making a sand beach.
The weekend’s live performances held there run 4.30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, and on Saturday at 1 p.m. local band The Augustines bring multi-instrumental family talent to the stage. The band is composed of teachers Hank and Laura, and teens Joe who plays electric and upright bass, and Rebecca who plays violin, hammered dulcimer, percussion rhythm while also filling in lead and harmony vocals.
Trailing on the heels of Bridgefest in terms of the revenue generated, the Strawberry Festival is comparably big, considering it runs a day and a half compared to the three day annual gala on the Houghton and Hancock waterfronts in June Murphy says.
“People that may not have been to the beautiful ‘Cote de jeur’ of Chassell in a while need to show up,” he adds.
He’s ensure of the number of participants in their parade but one day plans to get an aerial photograph to estimate the number he says.
Laura Kirby can be reached at lkirby@mininggazette.com
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