Photo provided A view of hot air balloons during Battle Creek’s annual Hot Air Balloon Festival.

State tourism website
chronicles warm-weather
events and celebrations

By Jennie Miller
C & G Staff Writer

It’s the most trafficked state tourism website in the U.S., with an expanse of information related to all things Michigan.

The website, www.michigan.org, is a one-stop shop for fun-filled activities all year round.

“We’re very proud of that, actually, knowing that people are coming to our site looking for places to go, things to do, and hopefully finding the information they need,” said Kirsten Borgstrom, media relations manager for Travel Michigan, a division of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

The site, which features the popular blog Pure Michigan, is also connecting with residents and visitors through various social networking mediums, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

“We are really trying to make the information out there more interactive and give folks the chance to communicate back with us and have a conversation online,” Borgstrom said.

This summer, the site is overflowing with information on special events, from the annual Michigan Beer and Brat Festival at Crystal Mountain and the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City to a Civil War re-enactment in Coldwater, a Rodeo and Pig Roast in Rothbury, the recent Holland Tulip Festival and the Great Lakes Kite Festival in Grand Haven.

The Tall Ship Celebration in Bay City is set for July 15-18.

“The Tall Ship Celebration is a nationally acclaimed maritime festival with the opportunity to board and tour visiting tall ships, but also includes lots of family oriented arts, crafts and entertainment activities,” said Shirley Roberts, events coordinator for the Tall Ship Celebration. “It is 3 1/2 days of mostly free family fun.”

The event is not annual, and Roberts considers the region to be very lucky to host the ships.

“It coincides with the tour through the Great Lakes of a fleet of tall ships by the American Sail Training Association in Rhode Island,” she said. “Bay City has had the privilege of hosting the fleet in 2001, 2003 and 2006. Once again, in 2010, we are the only official host port for the state of Michigan, and we are honored to represent not only our community and our region, but the whole state as well.”

For more information about the event, visit www.tallshipcelebration.com.

The Michigan International Speedway will host the inaugural Great Lakes Wine Festival in Brooklyn June 26-27.

“All these wineries are popping up in our area. What better way to showcase Michigan wineries than at the Michigan International Speedway?” said Sammie Lukaskiewicz director of communications for the speedway. “We’ll have wine tastings and a retail store where you can purchase wine. We’ll have Michigan breweries, Michigan food-based vendors, cooking demonstrations, pairing seminars, entertainment and cars to look at.”

There will also be camping onsite.

“We host Nascar races, so we have quite a significant amount of camping sites here,” Lukaskiewicz said. “We’ll have two campgrounds open. One with full hookups and electricity, and another just electric.”

For more information, visit www.greatlakeswinefest.com.

For more information about other fairs and festivals all over the state of Michigan this summer, visit www.michigan.org or find Pure Michigan on your favorite social networking site.