Getting ready for a huge weekend

Milford’s summer festival Milford Memories may not be at the level of the Ann Arbor Art Fair, but for a little Village the size of Milford it’s HUGE. It’s also huge with the various arts ads crafts vendors who attend every year. It is such a success that there is a waiting list of vendors trying to get a booth slot at Milford Memories. I’ve talked with many of the vendors who tell me that this is one of their favorite street festivals of the year and a very good one for business for them. Even during the very down years of the “Great Recession” they were still selling their wares to the visitors at Milford Memories.

The Milford Memories Festival draws crowds estimated at over 100,000 people into Milford over the three days – Friday through Sunday. That’s a lot of people for a small village to accommodate and getting a parking slot close to the downtown area can be tough. Since I only live two blocks from the north end of the festival, I get lots of requests to park at my house from friends and church people in West Bloomfield and Orchard Lake, where we lived before moving to Milford in 1999. We try to accommodate them all and certainly welcome people to visit us while they are out for the festival.

My house also happens to be right on the primary detour route for getting people around the closed off streets of downtown. That makes it tough to back out of my own driveway during the weekend, but we still manage. We also get lots of foot traffic by our front and side yards during the weekend, which, again, I don’t mind. I just hope that passers-by don’t use my yard as the dump for their empty water bottles or food wrappers.

There are lots of events planned for the weekend – 5 & 10K races; blind canoe races; a civil war encampment, with canon firing daily; an Art in the Village art show and much more. Click here to see a schedule all of the events associated with Milford Memories over the three days. The Milford Historical Society will be holding a Granny’s Garage Sale Friday and Saturday from 9 am until 4 pm on the front porch of the Milford Historical Museum. We also plan on having a display of museum items in a tent out front and another tent to sell some of the items that the museum normally sells when it is open. If enough docent volunteers can be found, we’ll also have the Museum open on Friday and Saturday.  The Museum is on Commerce Rd just a block east of Main Street, so it will be an easy detour for you if you are walking the whole festival.

Believe it or not there are a few other things going on in the Milford/Highland area that weekend, if street festivals are not your bag. One event of interest to history buffs might be Kensington Colonial Days out at Kensington Metropark.  For the list of other things going on, go to my web site www.movetomilford.com and check out Upcoming Community Events.

So rest up this weekend and early next week and get yourself ready for three days of fun and shopping  in Milford at the Milford Memories Festival or participating in some or all of the events going on during the weekend. And remember to stop by the Granny’s garage Sale at the Museum. I’ll be there most of the day on Friday.