MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – The City of Marquette is getting ready for a busy summer. With a different festival, art fair, or sporting event almost every weekend, Marquette parks are expected to see a lot of traffic this year.
The parks are already full of people spending time outside and enjoying the nice weather, from PrideFest next weekend, to Harbor and Beer fests this fall, Mattson Lower Harbor Park will be full of people and events all summer long, and that takes a lot of planning and coordination from the city. Special event coordinator Andrew MacIver says planning for the summer actually starts out in the fall.
“We do have a special event meeting that we hold before everyone gets their planning started for their events.” MacIver says, “It’s just a lot of coordination efforts amongst community members and outside entities that want to come to the city for the summer”
With around 20 events taking place in the parks or the trials this summer, the city fills up quickly, and so do hotels. Susan Estler, CEO of Travel Marquette, says to make sure you book any hotels or lodging and events as far in advance as possible.
“There’s always something going on,” Estler says, “tomorrow we actually have the First Thursday, so looking at all the different art galleries and art activities that are going on, even starting out with June 1st.”
With the increase in activity from tourists and locals, the city wants to remind people to respect the rules, regulations, and signage in the parks to keep them clean and accessible to everyone.
“We obviously don’t want to like over do it with the rules,” MacIver says, “people need to be able to go out and do what they want to do, but we’re a community and we need to be respectful of each other.”
MacIver also gave a reminder to pay attention to park where pets aren’t allowed. Presque isle park is classified as a nature preserve, the city has restricted dogs from the area for the safety of pets, visitors, and the wildlife in the park.
