National Cherry Festival

The National Cherry Festival is a food festival held annually in Traverse City, Michigan, United States. The eight-day festival celebrates cherry production in the Grand Traverse Bay region of Northern Michigan. Traverse City, which has been a major producer of cherries since the 1890s, has been nicknamed the "Cherry Capital of the World".

The festival was inaugurated in 1925 as the "Blessing of the Blossoms Festival". Since being renamed to the National Cherry Festival by the Michigan Legislature in 1931, the festival has been held nearly every year since, with cancellations in 1927, from 1942 to 1947, and in 2020. The festival draws an estimated 500,000 visitors annually.

Traverse City cherries
In 1839, Revered Peter Dougherty, a Presbyterian missionary, established a Native American mission at present-day Old Mission, near the tip of the Old Mission Peninsula. In 1852, Dougherty planted the first cherry trees, which flourished, much to the surprise of locals, who began to plant trees themselves. The first commercial cherry orchard was established in 1893. By the beginning of the 20th century, much of the Lake Michigan shoreline, especially the area surrounding Traverse City, was the center of a well-established cherry-growing industry.

Festival history
The very first festival was held in May 1925, and was known as the Blessing of the Blossoms. The first cherry queen was Gertrude Brown. The festival was cancelled in 1927 due to a late frost. In 1931, the Michigan Legislature renamed the festival to the National Cherry Festival, and moved to July. The festival was cancelled from 1942 to 1946 due to World War II, and again in 1947, as Traverse City instead celebrated its centennial. In 1964, the festival was extended from three days to five, and

In 1975, President Gerald Ford, a Michigan native, attended the festival, and led the Cherry Royale Parade as Grand Marshal.

On July 25, 1987, Cherry Festival participants earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for baking the world's largest cherry pie. The pie was 17 ft in diameter, weighing 28,350 pounds. This replaced the pie baked nine years earlier in Charlevoix, Michigan. This record was held until July 14, 1990, when a pie weighing 37740 lb, 20 ft in diameter was baked and eaten by approximately 1500 people in Oliver, British Columbia.

In 2021, the festival garnered national attention when on July 8, a Magic Carpet ride at the festival's midway malfunctioned and began to lean and sway. Bystanders rushed to the ride and held it down by its guardrails until the ride came to a stop. No serious injuries were reported, and shortly after, the ride was dismantled.

2020 postponement
In 2020, Festival Officials announced on Thursday, April 16, 2020, that the 90th National Cherry Festival was to be postponed until the following year. This postponement was in light of global health concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. The festival restarted in 2021.