PHOTO COURTESY OF PETOSKEYAREA.COM PHOTO COURTESY OF PETOSKEYAREA.COM
Festivals and Events
A tour of Kilwins Chocolate Kitchen is a must-see for the whole family while you’re in the area. They have been a celebrated part of Northern Michigan since they were founded in 1947 by Don and Katy Kilwin. The tradition continues today with the highest quality confections made from premium ingredients —using original recipes and a warm, friendly customer experience. With more than 108 stores in 22 states, Kilwins is where people celebrate and share the experience of life, family and gifting in a nostalgic Americana setting. A box of the world’s best Mackinac Island fudge is the perfect gift for those back home... if it makes it back! If it’s arts and culture you seek, you’ll find oodles of art — paintings, furniture, artisan jewelry, ceramics and more — in the many shops and dedicated galleries dotting the town. But you’ll find a veritable cornucopia of it, as well as concerts, dance, live theater and other events, inside the breathtaking 130-plus-year-old church that is Crooked Tree Arts Center. Three Thursdays each month during summer, Crooked Tree hosts live music in its neighboring Bidwell Plaza. It also sponsors live concerts — folk, jazz, strings, rock and more — several times each week from noon to 1 p.m. in downtown’s Pennsylvania Park. Every Friday morning from June through September, you can stock up on the freshest provisions in town at the Downtown Petoskey Farmers Market. Nearly 30 vendors of fish, meat, herbs, fruits, veggies and more line the 400 block of Howard Street. No matter what you do in Petoskey, don’t leave without taking in one of the city’s million dollar sunsets. Except for the deck of your own floating kingdom, the best places to watch that ball o’ fire sink into Lake Michigan’s waves is the aptly named Sunset Park overlooking the harbor, or Bayfront Park, directly adjacent to the marina. Should you take the marina up on its offer of courtesy bikes before you leave Petoskey, leave Petoskey. A quick roll north on the Little Traverse Wheelway — a paved, non-motorized path that runs about 23 miles along the coast between Charlevoix, south of Petoskey, and Harbor Springs — brings you to one of the prettiest places in northern Michigan: Petoskey State Park, home to camping, hiking trails, beaches, dunes, playgrounds and, of course, Petoskey Stones, the fossilized coral remnants of Michigan’s ice age. Is it unreal that all this exists within just 5.2-square-miles on Lake Michigan’s shore? It might at first seem so. But whether or not you’re feeling as lost when you come ashore as Scripps O’Neill did at the train station, chances are you’ll find whatever you’re looking for in Petoskey. Even the fictional Scripps’ very real train station, once a part of the fabled Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad line, is now the Pennsylvania Plaza Office Complex at the corner of Bay and Lewis streets. Did that signboard truly read “Petoskey, Michigan”? And, if so, could this place really be Petoskey, Michigan? It was once and it is still. Savor every inch before you ship back out. ★
Winter Carnival February 17-19, 2017: Downtown Petoskey is partnering with the long-running Winter Carnival, in its 89th year, with ice sculptures displayed on downtown sidewalks and in Pennsylvania Park. Participate in ice skating, retail therapy, a ghost walk and more in downtown Petoskey. Other events will take place at the Petoskey Winter Sports Park. For more information, visit PETOSKEYDOWNTOWN.COM. Petoskey Art in the Park July 15, 2017: More than 130 artists from all over the nation will descend on Pennsylvania Park with pottery, jewelry, paintings, photographs and more in tow for this 32nd annual and awe-inspiring show. Festival on the Bay August 18-19, 2017: The annual music, art, food and fun festival brings more than a dozen events and activities to the waterfront for two days: Wine on the water, a silent disco, cardboard boat races, a petting zoo and much more. For more information, visit PETOSKEYFESTIVAL.COM.
Concerts in the Park
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