Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Lily Thompson, 11, of Milwaukee, second right, gives her best loon call Wednesday at Mercer's 36th Annual Loon Days. Among those judging the contest, which was emceed by Kelly Kohegyi, were from left Dick Thiede and retired WDNR loon researcher Jeff Wilson.
MERCER, Wis — It was a warm, sunny day Wednesday as the town of Mercer filled with people celebrating the 36th annual Loon Day Festival.
“We’ve got a great day (today),” said Tina Brunell, the executive director of the Mercer Chamber of Commerce “It’s very warm but we’ve lucked out on our events this year, we’ve had good days for our events.”
While the attendance was good, particularly in the morning, Brunell said the head may have caused caused some to cut their visits short.
“People are kind of coming through and then instead of hanging out they’re seeking shade,” Brunell said. “But there has been a lot of people, it looked really busy.”
The festival sold all its vendor spaces, Brunell said, with roughly 240 vendors.
This year’s event featured the usual staples, including the popular Barbershop Chorus and Loon Calling Contest. The contest was won by Cordelia Keberling, who competed in the 12- to 17-year-old bracket.
While the popular events returned, Brunell said there was something new every year.
“There’s always new artists to see, so even if you’ve been to Loon Day before — some are the same, some are new and unique things you can find,” she said.
The festival is the the chambers major fundraiser, she said, and requires work year round to successfully pull off.
“We plan for Loon Day starting today,” Brunell said. “We are taking reservations for next year already. It’s kind of a year-long process, we never really stop planning for Loon Day.”
Not only does the festival allow the chamber to function, the economic benefits throughout the entire town.
“We’ve noticed our visitors plan their vacations around what they call, ‘Loon Week,’ so it’s always tough finding lodging,” Brunell said, adding the restaurants and other business also benefit.
An estimated 9,000 to 10,000 people visit the festival’s 2 1/2 blocks, according to Brunell.
“I often describe it as we go from this tiny little town and we transform into just a huge city, with just people everywhere.”
For the amount of traffic generated by the festival, Brunell said it takes a whole crew of people to return the town to normal.
“By Thursday morning, you don’t even know (Loon Day) happened,” she said. “We come in with a cleaning crew afterwards and clean up everything. Everything gets put away ... even after all these years it just amazes me.”
