While Chassell celebrates strawberries and Marquette boasts blueberries, the Copper Country claims the Keweenaw Thimbleberry Festival. Just as families search out thimbleberry shrubs in the wild, festival-goers will search out activities and items inspired by the deliciously tart berry.
The 2026 festival marks the second year the celebration has returned to the community. Co-organizer Amanda Makela says the thimbleberry is unique to the Copper Country, and past attempts to create a festival have been made. The latest rendition collaborates with local businesses and organizations to create a digital passport guiding festival-goers throughout the five-day event.
“It’s a way to rediscover your own area, get to see all these different farmers markets,” Makela said. “Also part of this is exploring our local businesses that have long time featured thimbleberry jams or cool creative twists like Jamson’s with their thimbleberry donut. But we’re also looping in places like Beviamo and Copper Scoop who are all offering cool inventive flavors with the thimbleberry. So this is really about exploration, enjoying the summer.”
The digital passport allows participants to collect points at different locations featuring thimbleberry-themed items such as jams, ice cream, cocktails and dishes. Visitors can check in at each stop and enter into raffle for a Thimbleberry gift box as they rack up points during the celebration.
“If you’re curious about how to participate in Thimbleberry Festival or the ways to explore the offerings of the week, you can go to thimbleberryfestival.com,” Makela said. “We have an outline of the schedule, the locations. We have a digital passport where folks can see every location marked out for them. They can check in, earn points, and we actually have a raffle for a Thimbleberry gift box that we’re giving away.”
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