From Jazz Fest to Arts, Beats & Eats, 7 best bets for Labor Day weekend
Ford Arts, Beats Eats
Metro Detroit’s annual end-of-summer party kicks off Friday for its third year in Royal Oak after relocating from Pontiac. This year’s lineup for the four-day festival includes 145 fine artists, more than 200 performers and 55 restaurants alongside a number of community-focused events, all staffed by 1,500 volunteers. Highlights? We got ’em: First, the non-music variety, followed by main stage national acts and the abundance of top locals. Not enough? How about the full schedule.
11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday. Downtown Royal Oak, 248-246-3065. www.artsbeatseats.com. $3, free on Friday before 5 p.m. $5 after 5 p.m. daily. Admission benefits local charities.
Photos: Scenes from 2011 Arts, Beats and Eats | The 2011 Duel Chef’s competition at Arts, Beats and Eats
Detroit Jazz Festival
The 33rd annual Detroit Jazz Festival is loaded. Seriously. Never in 32 previous years have this many of the top names in jazz descended upon Detroit for Labor Day weekend. More than 80 national artists, locally based musicians and school bands are on the bill. The Detroit festival remains the largest free jazz festival in North America — perhaps the world — playing out on four downtown stages that stretch from Hart Plaza up Woodward to Cadillac Square. Our jazz expert Mark Stryker provides descriptions of nearly every act in this complete schedule, plus gives his best-of-fest picks.
7-10:15 p.m. Friday, noon-10:45 p.m. Saturday.-Sunday, noon-8 p.m. Monday. Hart Plaza, Cadillac Square and Woodward Corridor in downtown Detroit. www.detroitjazzfest.com. Free.
Photos: 2011 Detroit Jazz Festival
Hamtramck Labor Day Festival
Launched in 1980 to boost spirits after the closing of the city’s Dodge Main plant, the Hamtramck event is now a vital part of metro Detroit’s always-busy Labor Day weekend. The annual Polish Day Parade starts at 1:30 p.m. Monday, and yes, the wacky Hamtramck Yacht Club Canoe Races will return this year. (For the uninitiated, the races involve pushcarts that look like canoes on wheels.) Phantasmagoria, the Sights, Invincible and, of course, the Polish Muslims are among the local acts that will provide the soundtrack. The full schedule is full of top local acts.
Noon-10 p.m. Saturday-Monday, downtown Hamtramck. www.hamtownfest.com. Free.
Photos: 2011 Hamtramck Festival
Michigan Peach Festival of Romeo
You can pursue a slice of excitement (and a big slice of peach pie) starting Thursday in northern Macomb County. The annual Michigan Peach Festival of Romeo, which continues through Monday, delivers everything a summer fest should: a carnival midway, arts and crafts, a car show, a big parade on Monday afternoon and food galore — with an emphasis on sweet treats made from peaches. If the latter put you in the mood to create some goodies of your own, you can shop for peaches and more of nature’s bounty at several nearby orchards.
2 p.m.-midnight Thursday, 10 a.m.-1 a.m. Friday, 7:30 a.m.-1 a.m. Saturday-Sunday, 7:30 a.m.-midnight Monday, downtown Romeo. 586-752-1170. www.peachfestromeo.com.
Great Lakes State Fair
You just can’t keep a good tradition down. Organizers of the Great Lakes State Fair are pitching their event as a replacement for the Michigan State Fair, which was discontinued in 2009 amid a sea of state financial problems. (The new event has no ties to the state.) Fairgoers will encounter plenty that’s familiar at the event, including rides, games, livestock and agriculture exhibits, a pavilion featuring Michigan-made products and a beer garden. The Detroit Shrine mini-circus will delight kiddies with clowns, tigers and elephants, and the local artists Annabelle Road, Jill Jack and David Shelby are in the music lineup.
8 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Sunday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday, Suburban Collection Showplace, 46100 Grand River, Novi. 248-348-5600. https://www.greatlakesstatefair.org/. www.greatlakesstatefair.org. $8, $6 ages 3-12, free to children 2 and younger.
Michigan Renaissance Festival
Medieval days of yore are celebrated at the Michigan Renaissance Festival in Holly Twp., which kicked off two weeks ago and continues on weekends through Sept. 30. “High Seas Adventure” is the theme this weekend, with the action including pirate-costume contests, beer-tastings and more. This photo gallery from last weekend gives a good sense of all the merriment.
10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday-Monday, then weekends only through Sept. 30, plus Sept. 14. 12500 Dixie Hwy., Holly Twp. 800-601-4848. www.michrenfest.com. $20.95, $18.95 seniors, $11.95 ages 5-12. $5 discount with donation of four non-perishable food items for Lighthouse of Oakland County.
Stephen Gottlieb Festival of the Arts
The festival presented by the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit kicked off earlier this week and continues through Sunday. Its headlining performance comes Saturday with a one-woman show with Bebe Neuwirth, still best known for playing sour and dour Lilith Sternin on the sitcoms “Cheers” and “Frasier.” She reveals a different side of her talent in “Stories with Piano #3,” which finds her drawing on tunes by Kander Ebb and Stephen Sondheim. Neuwirth has strong ties to musical theater and Broadway and won Tonys in 1986 for “Sweet Charity” and 1997 for “Chicago.” There’s also a full docket on Sunday, including a talk by the Detroit Institute of Arts’ Graham Beal (3 p.m.) and an HD screening of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company,” featuring the New York Philharmonic (7 p.m.). The full schedule is here.
Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, Berman Center for the Performing Arts, 6600 W. Maple, West Bloomfield. 248-661-1900. www.jccdet.org. Prices vary.
More photos: 2011 Labor Day wrap-up in pictures| 2011 Detroit Labor Day Parade