Posted by Maritime Festival, organizers on August 24, 19103 at 14:20:42:
In Reply to: 2003 Thunder Bay Maritime Festival posted by Laurie Howell on August 06, 19103 at 12:32:13:
: SCHEDULE AND ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCED FOR
: 2003 THUNDER BAY MARITIME FESTIVAL
: (Alpena, MI) The Thunder Bay Maritime Festival Committee invites everyone to "Celebrate the Sanctuary" at the Thunder Bay Maritime Festival, August 23-24, in downtown Alpena. This free family event will feature the regional musical talents of the award-winning Song of the Lakes, as well as the popular acappella group, The Overtones, and renowned Great Lakes story-tellers Larry Massey and Genot Picor. The Festival will also showcase the R/V Laurentian, giving the public a rare firsthand look at a modern research vessel.
: Various demonstrations and displays for adults and children alike will take place throughout the festival, including knot tying and an obstacle course sponsored by the local U.S. Coast Guard office, dive equipment demonstrations by Sanctuary staff, and personal appearances by well-known maritime artists and authors.
: This year’s festival will also feature the 80-foot research vessel, R/V Laurentian, which will be available for public tours. The R/V Laurentian supports the activities of the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory and the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve.
: Organizers of the Festival are especially pleased to announce the return this year of the folk group Song of the Lakes, widely known as the ‘Musical Ambassadors of the Great Lakes.’ Voted the best Folk Artists for several years in Northern Michigan's music scene, Song of the Lakes combines the rich Celtic and Scandinavian traditions with Michigan history in an engaging high energy show, woven with humor and storytelling. Another musical highlight will be The Overtones, a six-man acappella group from Traverse City, which has delighted crowds for years with sea songs and shanties about the maritime history of the Great Lakes.
: This year’s Festival will also host two of the region’s most remarkable maritime story-tellers, Larry Massie and Genot Picor. Michigan historian Larry Massie performs fast-paced stories of inspiring and magical characters, including Chippewa chiefs, steel-sinewed voyageurs, black-robed Jesuit priests who carried the cross to the wilderness, intrepid pioneer women, hard-working miners, rough-hewn lumberjacks, and salty Great Lakes ship captains.
: Equally energetic is storyteller-musician Genot Picor who blends the unique cultures and ethnic traditions of the French, English and Native Americans of the Great Lakes region who accompanied the coming of the voyageurs 300 years ago. In his role as a ‘Ghost from Michigan's Past - A Voyageur-Scout -- Picor shares stories and music that relate the discoveries, the special friendships and new adventures of life in the wilderness.
: The Thunder Bay Maritime Festival will offer story hours and face painting for children as well as several maritime activities that include “Discover Diving” - an opportunity to don dive equipment with the help of the Thunder Bay Staff, “Dive in the Past” - a program that teaches children about underwater archeology, and “Gutter Sailing” - miniature sail boat races.
: Adults will enjoy featured maritime artists and authors, including well-known shipwreck expert Fran Reynolds who is perhaps best known for her book about the sinking of the Pewabic, one of the most disastrous shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. Thunder Bay Sanctuary staff will also share video from their research missions as well as some of the artifacts they’ve discovered in Thunder Bay.
: The festival will run from 10 am to 7 pm on Saturday, August 23rd and from 11 am to 4 pm on Sunday, August 24th. For a complete listing of festival hours, food vendors and scheduled performances, please see the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation website at www.nmsfocean.org.
: The Festival is co-hosted by the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve, the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the City of Alpena.
: Thunder Bay is a 448-square mile sanctuary and underwater preserve that protects an estimated 116 historically significant shipwrecks ranging from nineteenth century wooden side-wheelers to twentieth century steel-hulled steamers. The Sanctuary is helped in its mission by the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, which supports the outreach and education efforts of the National Marine Sanctuary System, part of the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.