Upper Peninsula Folklife Festival to Celebrate Traditional Arts and Culture in Marquette

The Upper Peninsula Folklife Festival will celebrate the traditional arts, music, food, and cultural heritage of the Upper Peninsula Friday through Sunday, Oct. 2-4, in Marquette. The festival will feature traditional artists and culture bearers from throughout the Upper Peninsula and Upper Midwest, with events designed to showcase and preserve traditions passed down through generations, including performances, demonstrations, hands-on workshops, food and opportunities to learn about the region's cultural heritage.

The festival is a revival of a previous Upper Peninsula Folklife Festival that was held before it was discontinued. Dan Truckey, co-organizer of the event, said the idea of bringing the festival back had been on his mind for years.

"It would be great to redo something like that," he said. "So we got together and decided we're bringing it back after 16 years."

Truckey said the festival is intended to "refamiliarize people with various traditional arts" that were once more common throughout Upper Peninsula communities. The event gives visitors opportunities to learn skills such as weaving, spoon carving and playing rhythm bones from experienced craftspeople.

Friday, Oct. 2, will begin with the Upper Peninsula Food Crawl, featuring local restaurants offering regionally inspired dishes and live music. Participating locations include Trenary Toast Café, DIGS Gastropub, The Delft Bistro and Lagniappe. Musical performers will include Majority Finn, Ameriikan Poijat, The Feltliner Duo and the Back Room Boys.

Saturday, Oct. 3, will feature a full day of festival programming at the Northern Center on the Northern Michigan University campus. Traditional craft and art demonstrations will include harp making, bowl turning, weaving, woodblock printing, wool processing and spinning, yarn winding and Native American beadwork.

Visitors can also participate in hands-on workshops featuring lace making, wooden spoon carving, birchbark and sweetgrass ornament making, Swedish-Finnish rosemaling, Swedish star wreath making, rhythm bones, Irish session tunes and the Finnish five-string kantele. Some workshops require registration and have an additional fee, while festival admission is free.

Truckey said the festival's workshops are designed to give people the opportunity to learn directly from experienced craftspeople.

"I think learning from a person, especially many of the people we're bringing, are masters in their art form, and so it's an opportunity for people to learn directly from really, really skilled craftspeople," he said.

Musical and dance performances throughout the day will include Kivajat, Hiawatha House Band, the Back Room Boys, Ameriikan Poijat, Majority Finn, Midsummer Strings, Cloverland and The Feltliner Duo.

Truckey said the festival's return comes at a time when people are increasingly disconnected from traditional arts and crafts.

"I think that it's becoming more and more every year an issue that we need to address," he said. "I want something real, and these things are real."

For Truckey, folklife is about more than preserving things exactly as they existed in the past. It also reflects how traditions continue to influence life in the Upper Peninsula today.

"Heritage is not just about the past. It's also about the living past today."

He said traditional arts and cultural practices continue to change as they are passed from one generation to another, giving people opportunities to develop their own connections to those traditions, although some traditional arts have become less common throughout the Upper Peninsula, including rag rug weaving and certain Finnish and polka music traditions.

"If people don't continue the tradition, it's going to disappear."

The festival aims to encourage younger generations to learn and continue those traditions.

"Maybe we can get people, younger generation, say, 'Hey, I want to learn those types of songs, or I want to learn how to dance like that, or I want to learn how to make that,' and maybe keep it going," Truckey said.

Sunday, Oct. 4, will invite festivalgoers to explore Marquette-area studios, galleries, museums and other cultural establishments. The festival encourages visitors to experience the region's food, art, history, music and landscapes as part of its broader celebration of Upper Peninsula folklife.

The Upper Peninsula Folklife Festival was created to celebrate, share and preserve traditional arts in the region. Traditional arts are cultural practices learned informally from one person or group to another and can include Indigenous beading, folk dance, canoe building, weaving, yarn spinning and spoon carving.

Truckey said he hopes people leave the festival with a greater appreciation for the region's culture while also enjoying the experience.

"To me, it's all about inspiring people," he said. "We want them to be inspired. We want them to have a good time."

All Saturday festival programs are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. Workshop registration and additional event information are available through the Upper Peninsula Folklife Festival website.

The Upper Peninsula Folklife Festival is made possible through the support of its sponsors, including Michigan Arts and Culture Council, Upper Michigan Arts and Culture, City of Marquette Arts and Culture, Superiorland Woodturners, American Scandinavian Foundation, Northern Michigan University, Travel Marquette and Hiawatha Music Co. Their support helps bring traditional artists, musicians and culture bearers to the festival and provides opportunities for attendees to participate in workshops and other programming.