Getting Ready For Bridgefest

With Bridgefest set to take place this weekend, both communities of Houghton and Hancock are making some final preparations.

Now in its 31st year, the planning committee has added a new start to the festival.

“Bridgefest is a celebration of the bridge.  It’s the heaviest lift bridge in the world.  It’s like the official opening of summer to a lot of people Friday night.  It’s that tradition that they don’t want to give up, and I think it’s a good one,” said parade chairman David Crowley.

The parade begins at its normally scheduled start time of 7:00 pm, but just before that is a new activity.

Coordinator Ryan Towles said, “New this year for Bridgefest is the 5k road race run/walk in front of the Bridgefest parade. So you’d have a chance to run through downtown Hancock and Houghton on closed streets and run over the bridge.”

As the runners take to the streets, the procession will be just 5 minutes behind with a full line up of floats and marching bands.

“Forty-four units plus three bands.  Ten of the units have music,” said Crowley.

Along with entertainment on Friday night, Saturday contains a full day of music including Michigan native Joshua Davis as the headlining act.  Davis is best known for his appearances on “The Voice” from 2015.  He will be taking the stage at 9:00.

As well as some familiar favorites, the food line up will also have some new flavors.

Towles said, “This year for food, we’ve got the new Baby E’s Barbecue that’s here in Houghton.  We’ve got a fry bread vendor from Baraga that we had last year.  We’ve got an elephant ear vendor.  We’ve got a couple different vendors doing hot dogs and brats, nachos, sloppy joes.  We have a new food truck in Houghton so we’ve got vegetarian options, too, which is really good. There’s a lot of options.  There should be something for everybody’s taste down there.”

All activities including concerts are free and open to the public.  “You can come to Bridgefest and not spend a dime,” said Towles.

A full schedule can be found at www.bridgefestfun.com.

The lineup of music performances for this year’s Bridgefest is now available.

Friday
9:00-11:00 PM Night Screamer

Saturday

2:00 -3:30 PM Charles White & The Realtime Jazz Band

3:30-5 PM Ryan Peterson

5:00-7:00 PM Uncle Floyd

7:00- 9:00 PM Tom K & Highway 41

9:00-11:00 PM Joshua Davis

The concerts are all free and will be held at the Ray Kestner Waterfront Park in Houghton.

As Bridgefest approaches, the City of Houghton would like to remind everyone there will be no parking allowed on Shelden Avenue between Portage Street and Quincy Street between the hours of 5:00pm and 9:00pm on Friday for the Bridgefest Parade.

The Bridgefest committee is still looking for volunteers to help out with this year’s event.  Help is needed on Saturday with security, checking IDs, selling drink tickets, and serving drinks.  Help is also needed with selling wristbands, supervising inflatables and children’s games, and cotton candy making.  If you are interested, please email bridgefest@up.net.