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3 weeks ago | 
northernexpress.com | Ross Boissoneau |Anna Faller |Ellen Miller |Kierstin Gunsberg
June 7, 2025 Do-do-do-do! Here comes the sun, and I say…head to Elk Rapids for their Here Comes the Sun Downtown Street Party on Saturday, June 14, from 4-8pm! This party is all about celebrating downtown businesses and employees before the summer tourism crush hits. There will be local food vendors, live music, and activities for all ages on River Street, which will be closed to vehicular traffic for the party.
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3 weeks ago | 
northernexpress.com | Anna Faller |Ross Boissoneau |Ellen Miller |Kierstin Gunsberg
Tastemaker By Anna Faller | June 7, 2025 We’re all for a little spring adventuring, especially if it comes with a haul of highly-coveted morel mushrooms…or, you could just go for the Morel Mushroom Burger ($22) at 45th Parallel Café in Suttons Bay! Featuring a hearty half-pound beef patty from Fire River Farms, this burger is grilled to order, topped with a slice of melty Havarti cheese, and stacked atop a toasty Michigan Bread brioche bun.
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3 weeks ago | 
northernexpress.com | Ross Boissoneau |Anna Faller |Ellen Miller |Kierstin Gunsberg
Bottoms Up June 7, 2025 This wine wasn’t grown on the vine, but in the tree! Over Memorial Day weekend, Black Star Farms debuted its limited release Pear Wine ($18), which is exclusively available at the winery’s tasting rooms in Suttons Bay and on Old Mission Peninsula. The wine is made of 100 percent local pears that are gently fermented to create a delicate, pear-forward flavor. It’s semi-sweet, but remains delicate and balanced with 3.5 percent residual sugar.
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3 weeks ago | 
northernexpress.com | Ross Boissoneau |Anna Faller |Ellen Miller |Kierstin Gunsberg
500+ concerts, festivals, and shows across northern Michigan By Ross Boissoneau | June 7, 2025 For the next three to four months, summertime sounds are everywhere. Rock to folk, country to jazz, classical to pop will be played in auditoriums, listening rooms—even on islands and (local) mountains.
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3 weeks ago | 
northernexpress.com | Ross Boissoneau |Anna Faller |Ellen Miller |Kierstin Gunsberg
Stuff We Love June 7, 2025 If you lived in Traverse City in the aughts and early 2010s—and you were hungry after 10pm—chances are, you made your way to JP’s Hard Luck Diner on Munson/E Front Street in Traverse City.
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3 weeks ago | 
northernexpress.com | Kierstin Gunsberg |Ross Boissoneau |Anna Faller |Ellen Miller
Hitting the road with Traverse City’s startup brothers By Kierstin Gunsberg | June 7, 2025 Ask most twenty-somethings what their dream summer looks like, and chances are it’s not loading into a 40-foot bus with their brother for an extended cross-country work trip.
But Garret and Dakota Porter aren’t most brothers.
At just 13 and 16 years old, the Traverse City duo launched ActionGlow, an LED lighting system for snowboards and other action sports gear.
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3 weeks ago | 
northernexpress.com | Ross Boissoneau |Anna Faller |Ellen Miller |Kierstin Gunsberg
June 7, 2025 Emily Dickinson, the American poet who gave us poems like “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” and “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” comes to life at the Botanic Gardens at Historic Barns Park in Traverse City on June 12 at 6pm. Local actor Sara Hartley takes on William Luce’s classic one-woman show, The Belle of Amherst: The Life of Emily Dickinson, which garnered a Tony and a Grammy for its inaugural Broadway star, Julie Harris, in the 1970s.
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3 weeks ago | 
northernexpress.com | Ross Boissoneau |Anna Faller |Ellen Miller |Kierstin Gunsberg
75+ chances to compete Up North By Northern Express Staff & Contributors | June 7, 2025 Walk. Run. Bike. Swim. Paddle. Canoe. Or go all in and try a triathlon. However you like to get moving, there’s a race for it in northern Michigan. We found more than 75 competitions that will bring you glory, sore legs (or arms), and a great story to tell as you race around trails, wineries, bodies of water, or even from Traverse City all the way down to Muskegon.
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3 weeks ago | 
northernexpress.com | Ross Boissoneau |Anna Faller |Ellen Miller |Kierstin Gunsberg
June 7, 2025 You say mac, we say cheese! Turtle Creek Stadium is switching gears from baseball and fireworks to carbs and dairy on June 14 for the Mac & Cheese Festival. Local eateries like Dreloco Taco and Reflect Bistro will team up with a slate of other Michigan vendors for an array of different cheese-inspired bites.
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3 weeks ago | 
northernexpress.com | Anna Faller |Ross Boissoneau |Ellen Miller |Kierstin Gunsberg
From sunup to sundown, here’s what happens horseside By Anna Faller | June 7, 2025 For 13 weeks from June to September, Traverse City Horse Shows (TCHS) plays host to some of the world’s most accomplished equestrians representing 48 states and 26 countries, 60,000 rapt attendees, and in peak season, 1,600 horses (not to mention seven million dollars in prize money)! “It’s really becoming a summertime destination for the equestrian community,” TCHS Event Director Matt Morrissey says. But you...
