Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By TOM LAVENTURE
Ironwood — The Ironwood Chamber of Commerce is starting plans for the 2021 Festival Ironwood that is scheduled for July 14-17.
The chamber board’s Festival Ironwood Organizing Committee agreed to start planning at its Feb. 8 meeting. The event may be modified or potentially canceled depending on COVID-19 restrictions guidelines or orders from the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department and the state of Michigan in place at that time.
“We are just being cautiously optimistic to get the whole thing going again,” said Will Corcoran, a Festival Ironwood event co-chair along with Keith Johnson. “We have rented the tent, have the committee heads in place and now it’s just a matter of getting everyone going.”
The annual four-day, family-friendly event centered at Historic Depot Park was canceled for 2020. Planning had started but stopped once the pandemic shutdown orders were put in place in March 2020.
Organizers said the outlook for midsummer 2021 is much better and is more likely to go ahead even if modifications are required than was possible the previous year. For the event to happen at all the insurance and tent rental must happen now along with sending out vendor notices and scheduling entertainment and marketing materials.
“We don’t want to lose another year trying and we are working really hard to do it but time will tell,” Corcoran said. “We will see how the vaccines go but the meetings have been positive and we are definitely feeling good about it.”
Festival Ironwood traditionally includes art, craft, and trade shows, live music, classic cars, food and games for kids that features the “World’s Largest Duck Pick,” said Michael Meyer, chamber director. But Festival Ironwood serves as an opportune time of the summer for families and school classes to plan reunions to coincide with the event in anticipation of so many former residents coming to visit during the week, he said.
“It’s a major event for Ironwood,” Meyer said. “It’s an old fashioned small town festival where people have time to reconnect and have a good time when it’s warm and sunny.”
The event will remain centered at Depot Park for its space and amenities to include shelters, wading pool, sand volleyball courts, and restrooms, Corcoran said. There may be opportunities to expand some of the event activities to the new Downtown City Square but it is too soon to say how the space may be incorporated.
“The whole atmosphere of Festival Ironwood centers on the big tent and that would be impossible to put up at the new city square,” Corcoran said. “We definitely see the city square as a way to complement the festival going forward.”
The city square will help to incorporate the downtown area into the festival, he said. The amphitheater and other amenities of the city square present great opportunities.
For more information on the Ironwood Festival and to receive an arts, crafts or trade show registration form, contact the chamber at 906-932-1122, Johnson at 906-364-4316, or Corcoran at 906-364-5672. Email the chamber at [email protected] or visit online at ironwoodchamber.org under “events.”