The popular Leland Wine and Food Festival is back on and set for June 14 after the Leland Township board unanimously approved the request to hold it once again at its regular meeting on Jan. 13.
The Leland Chamber of Commerce organizes the festival, with funds raised from the event going towards things in the community like the annual July fireworks, holiday lights, trash receptacles with trash pickup, and flowers on the bridge in Leland.
The festival was canceled in 2024 after the Leland Chamber of Commerce announced it could not find a solid location. The event has typically been hosted in the parking lot of the Leland Harbor, but the venue was changed in 2022 and 2023 to the Leland Lodge due to construction in Fishtown. Leland Chamber of Commerce President Mark Morton previously said the lodge was no longer an option though and that the chamber would look for an alternative. Last year, the Leland Harbor Commission turned down the chamber’s request to return to the harbor, citing restrictions in place by the Department of Environmental Quality and Waterways Commission for use.
Tony West, the chair of the Leland Wine and Food Festival, said there’s been a lot of work involved over the last year with various entities, such as the harbor commission and the state waterways commission, to make the event a reality again. West said there’s been no injuries in the last 35 years of holding the festival at the harbor parking lot and that it’s their goal to continue providing a safe environment this year and into the future.
This year it will look like a “hybrid festival,” Morton said, where they will close down Lake Street from River to Pearl Street to have the wine portion of the event set up, and there will be a pathway down to use half of the parking lot at the harbor for music and food. The closure will affect the Friday evening before June 14 as well as Sunday morning for expedited quick teardown of tents and other festival signs/ setups.
“We don’t feel we can pack it all in on Lake Street, which would be preferable, but I think by doing this hybrid portion that we could pull it off,” Morton said at the meeting. “From the chamber perspective, the harbor is the place to do it, it’s quintessential Leland. We tried to do it at Hancock Field — it’s just a field, there’s nothing special about it. We can’t go back to the lodge, so the harbor is really where we need to have this to make it profitable for us and to make it the experience that we’re looking for everybody to have.”
Event organizers will coordinate with Leland Township Fire Department Chief Dan Besson to finalize the festival layout. In addition, there will be portable public restrooms available both inside the festival designated areas and on the exterior to accommodate visitors going to the event and for those just visiting town that weekend.
“We really looked at this from a safety aspect that I think is going to be a win-win for everybody,” West said.
The township board also approved the request from the harbor commission to appoint Leland Harbormaster Jeremy Anderson to negotiate with wine and food festival organizers the financial terms to compensate the harbor. Morton explained to the board that they want to reimburse the harbor for any costs that may incur by holding the festival in June, with West adding that discussions so far have considered estimates of $3,000.
“We need to fine tune what that (cost) looks like with Jeremy,” West said. “Its been really nice, and I think the community should know this, just the multitude of different people coming together to see this heartbeat pump back into this festival…”
