National Cherry Festival

Watch special coverage of the excitement of The National Cherry Festival all week long: from Monday, July 4th; through Friday, July 8th. Plus, the four will be giving away prizes each day on the show! All you have to do to enter for a chance to win is to share some of your favorite moments from The National Cherry Festival….

This giveaway is now closed. Thank you to all who submitted their favorite National Cherry Festival memories! Share your favorite thing about National Cherry Festival with us: and you could win a prize from the four! It’s that easy and there are five chances:  once each day, Monday through Friday during NCF. Enter by submitting a photo and a caption…

Sometime around 1910, growers in the Grand Traverse area began to hold informal “blessing of the blossoms” ceremonies every year to pray for a good cherry crop. The annual blossom prayers evolved into what we now know as The National Cherry Festival, but the foundation of farming and celebrating cherries continues to be the focus of the festival. I sat…

It doesn’t surprise me that Susan Wilcox Olson is reluctant to talk about herself. “I’ve just been really lucky to have so many wonderful mentors,” she says as she thinks of the people who have helped her grow her public and media relations firm, Grand Bay Promotions. Susan is the face behind the faces: carefully designing opportunity and publicity for…

If you’ve ever driven around Traverse City, chances are you’ve seen it. A giant pie tin that has remained outside the entrance of Sara Lee on Cass Street for so long, it’s managed to blend in to the scenery. What you might not know, however, is the story behind the colossal cherry pie that served 35,000 people on a hot…

In 2006, 23-year-old Bekah Lynch (Noss) found her place on the National Cherry Festival Queen’s Court. “I was about as old as you can get to be on the Cherry Festival Queen’s court,” she laughs thinking about the week she spent as royalty. “It was so much fun. I had been going to the festival for my whole life, but…

“I thought that my biggest issue for 2020 would be the rising water levels,” explains Kat Paye, Executive Director of the National Cherry Festival.  “And, yet…here we are.” Paye gazes past me as we sit across the room from each other ten days before what would have been the kickoff of the National Cherry Festival’s 94th celebration. Normally, Paye, her…

How does winning a million dollars sound? You can take a swing at the big prize over at Bay Meadows Golf Course during this National Cherry Festival week. The Million-Dollar-Hole-In-One preliminary ro

More than half a million people are expected to visit the National Cherry Festival this week. Crowds that size fill up local hotels and over run restaurants downtown. This year the festival is later

There are certain parts of the National Cherry Festival that really make people flip. Whether it’s a slice of cherry pie or a favorite band rocking out on the bayside stage, you can reach new heights