The first-ever Belleville Lake Fest will begin tomorrow and continue through Sunday.
Following months of quarantining and social restrictions, the Belleville Lake communities of Belleville, Van Buren and Sumpter townships will celebrate summer with a festival on and around 8-mile long Belleville Lake. The festival, led by the Belleville Area Chamber of Commerce (BACC), and in partnership with the Belleville Yacht Club and Servis Group, will be an all-outdoor celebration heavily centered on downtown Belleville with events in Van Buren Township. The festival will feature a COVID-safe lineup of events, live music, quality vendors and other entertainment tailored for all ages, officials said.
Belleville Lake was created by Thomas Edison and Henry Ford and is the largest recreational lake in all of Wayne County. The purpose of the Belleville Lake Fest is to call attention to the unique beauty and history of the lake, organizers said in a prepared statement.
The projected Belleville Lake Fest schedule currently includes a Bring Your Own Kayak Scavenger Hunt sponsored by the Belleville Rotary Club which will continue through June 25.
Opening ceremonies for the event will include a Bar Crawl on Friday June 25 presented by A Design Line along with movies in Van Buren Park; food trucks; Jack Demmer Ford Live Music Stage; Door-to Door with Diedre live music stage and a kick-off party sponsored by Team Designs and Edward Jones.
On Saturday, June 26, there will be a juried artisan market sponsored by Autokiniton; food trucks, live entertainment at the Jack Demmer Ford live music stage and Door-to-Door with Diedre live music stage; a 5K community run sponsored by the Van Buren Education Foundation; Dragon Boat practice presented by Pacesetter; a vintage car show sponsored by Garden Fantasy on Main and Crafted Modern; a Kidzone presented by Genisys Credit Union; a gong show; Belleville Bass unveiling and an evening boat parade.
“The Lake Fest, like the Harvest Fest and Winter Fest before it, has the real potential to be a wonderful, family friendly, community building event,” said Deb Green, president of the Rotary Club of Belleville, “The Rotary will be participating with a booth selling Duck Race tickets and information on wastewater management, and Trinity Episcopal Church will have a booth selling our famous strawberry pies.”
“The Belleville Lake Fest marks a sorely-needed return to normalcy that our community is greatly looking forward to. The organizers are stressing high-quality events and vendors, while building in the ability to spread out the all-outdoor Lake Fest. In the event that another quarantine is mandated, then proper social distancing and mask-wearing will ideally permit the show to go on without cancellation,” a chamber of commerce representative said.
“We are very excited to have Lake Fest in our community,” said Kevin McNamara, Van Buren Township supervisor, “For so long having events felt so far away and now we have the opportunity to do something really great for our citizens and neighbors.”
“The festival is going to provide us with our first taste of “normal” in a very long time and I can't wait!,” said Angelica Renaud, owner of A Design Line in Belleville, “Lake Fest is a great way to show off our growing Main Street and our small town charm while possibly luring prospective enterprises.”
For more information and to view the schedule of events visit www.bellevillelakefest.com and follow Belleville Lake Fest on Instagram and Facebook.
