Michigan’s Greatest Food Fests That Will Really Make You Hungry

I eat to live, I do not live to eat. At one point in my life I used to eat whatever I wanted...I gained a lot of weight. I weighed nearly 300 pounds at my heaviest. I am now down to 175 pounds. That doesn't mean that I quit eating; I started making better choices with regard to everything I eat.

I have a healthy diet and I get exercise. I also discovered what moderation is. If I can moderate what I eat, I can enjoy myself without piling the pounds back on. I love going to fairs and festivals so I can get in on the food at the event. There's something special about getting a corn dog, elephant ear or funnel cake at the fair or small-town festival.

Chicago has "The Taste of Chicago." This once was a week-long festival in Grant Park featuring nothing but awesome Chicago food and live music. It has morphed over the years—the pandemic didn't help—but it's still going on and they have adapted well to be able to execute this event.

I was hoping that Michigan would have something fun like that. I started looking online to see if there are any food-specific festivals in our state. Michigan does have some cool food festivals that you can attend in July and August. The only two that I have heard of that I mention are the Elsie Dairy Festival and Cheeseburger in Caseville.

If you are bored and want to hit the road for a day trip, you could check out these festivals that I found at Food Reference.

Michigan Food Festivals

7/2 through 7/9: Cherry Festival — Traverse City

The Cherry Festival has been around since 1926. It attracts a half million people every year, and it's in the top 100 festivals in the U.S.

7/7 through 7/9: Elsie Dairy Festival — Elsie

Elsie holds its annual festival in honor of the Dairy industry in July. Along with draft horse pulls, carnival, arts & crafts and parade, they also have kiddie pulls, a kiddie parade, stage entertainment and the Dairy Dash.

7/13 through 7/16: Michigan Livestock Expo — Coldwater

Enjoy the day and buy some livestock.

7/16: Manchester Chicken Broil — Manchester

Attendance is expected to be 16,000 people with volunteers serving 12,000 charbroiled chicken meals in a four-hour period. There will be a car show and other entertainment too.

7/6: Strawberry Festival — Leonard

This event started when the volunteer fire department started serving strawberry sundaes.  Get your fill of strawberries, enjoy the parade, rides, fire truck rides and more.

7/20 through 7/23: National Baby Food Festival — Fremont

Fremont is home to Gerber Products Company. Yes, the baby food maker. There's going to be a lot to do celebrating baby food. There will be plenty of events for kids and adults including a bed race, bike decorating, baby food eating contest, baby crawl and more.

7/22 through 7/23: Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Beer Festival — Ypsilanti

This festival features over 1,000 different beers from more than 100 Michigan craft breweries. Food will be available for purchase and entertainment will be provided by Michigan bands.

7/29 through 7/31: Yale Bologna Festival — Yale

All things bologna with fun events like a street dance, fireworks, outhouse races and more.

8/12 through 8/21: Cheeseburger In Caseville — Caseville

This started 22 years ago and Caseville has been referred to as Key North. Named after the Jimmy Buffet song (kind of), it's supposed to be a blast with lots of food, burgers, entertainment, burgers, fun and cheeseburgers.