Happy Summer! The 89th annual Fish Pic is here

by Joan Farnam on August 2, 2018

Layne Kennedy took this iconic shot of Grand Marais in summer a few years ago. Enjoy!

Grand Marais and the North Shore celebrate history and their connections to Lake Superior this weekend during the 89th annual Fisherman’s Picnic. This iconic celebration, which includes everyone in the community as well as visitors from throughout the region, is a 4-day event featuring everything from trail runs to a cutest puppy contest, craft shows to candy corn and, of course, the famous fish burger.

Fish Burgers, crafted from herring caught in Lake Superior, are one of the features of Fisherman's Picnic, sponsored by the Grand Marais Lions Club.

Fish Burgers, crafted from herring caught in Lake Superior, are one of the icons of Fisherman’s Picnic, which Isi sponsored by the Grand Marais Lions.

Fish Pic starts on Thursday and runs through Sunday in downtown Grand Marais as well as throughout the county. There is lots to do for all ages. Besides all the contests and events in town, there is live music on the Harbor Park stage, three nights of street dancing, as well as a tennis tournament, a softball tournament, a log rolling tournament and the Big Fish contest. There are three different craft markets open this weekend, too, and lots of kids’ activities and daily contests. And not to forget–there’s a fireworks show on Saturday night and the Fisherman’s Picnic Parade at 1 p.m.

The Fisherman’s Picnic Parade begins at 1 p.m. on Sunday. It’s the best parade of the year.

In short, the Fish Pic schedule is crowded with lots of things to do all weekend.

Download the schedule here. And come on down and be entertained this weekend!

There are lots of other things to do in the community this weekend, too. Here are a few of them:

North House Folk School will hold two sessions of “Try It: Wood-fired Baking” classes on Thursday, Aug. 2. The sessions are from 1-3 p.m. and from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Participants will have a chance to try their hands at baking bread in North House’s wood-fired oven.

Two sessions of Try It: Baking Bread” will be held at North House Folk School on Thursday. Call 387-9762 for more info and to register.

Also, the Folk School’s artisan-instructor of the week is broom-maker Marybeth Garmoe. Garmoe will be demonstrating her craft all weekend at North House and will teach a mini-class at 10 a.m. on Saturday. For more info and to register, call 387-9762.

Also on Thursday, the 40th annual Friends of the Library Used Book Sale begins at the Cook County Community Center. The first session, from 5-7 p.m. Thursday night is open to members, but memberships will be on sale one hour prior to the sale. The book sale continues from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday and from 8 .m. to noon on Saturday. Saturday is the bag sale… fill a bag up with books for a small fee. All are invited to come up and check out this sale, which features hundreds of books on every subject.

Also on Thursday, the Grand Marais Theater Festival continues with “Shrek The Musical,” which will be performed at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts at 7 p.m. Thursday and 7 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are available at the door. “Mom’s Gift,” a comedy which is also part of the festival, will be performed on Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m., after the Fisherman’s Picnic Parade.

On Friday, Drury Lane Books will hold a Writer’s Salon at 7 p.m. with Kelly Barnhill, author of the Newbery Medal-winning novel, “The Girl Who Drank the Moon.”

Author Kelly Barnhill will be featured at a Writer’s Salon at Drury Lane Books at 7 p.m. Friday.

Barnhill will read from her latest work,“Dreadful Young Ladies,” a collection of short stories for adults. She will also discuss writing and take questions from the audience. All invited. Free.

On Saturday, the Lake Superior International Yacht Race, one of the oldest annual races on Lake Superior, will start in the Grand Marais Harbor at 11 a.m. The boats will race to Thunder Bay.

The Lake Superior International Yacht Race is from Grand Marais to Thunder Bay this year. The start is at 11 a.m. in the Grand Marais Harbor.

The race is hosted by the Thunder Bay Yacht Club.

And there are lots of mini-classes and events at the Grand Marais Art Colony on Saturday. Andy Ness will teach a free, drop-in mask-making class from 1-4 p.m. on Saturday. Lissa Grover will teach a class in making glass window ornaments from 9-11 a.m. and from 1-3 p.m. in the glass studio. To register, call 387-2737. And Twin Cities potter Mark Lusardi will be teaching a raku class at the Grand Marais Art Colony on Saturday and Sunday. (There is still time to register for the class.)

Raku potter, Mark Lusardi, will hold a rake-firing event for the public on Saturday from 5-7 p.m. at the Grand Marais Art Colony.

Also on Saturday from 5-7 p.m., Lusardi will also hold a drop-in raku firing event for the public. Small pots will be available for purchase, and participants can glaze it and watch as Lusardi fires it in his raku kiln. For more info, call 387-2737.

And not to forget, street dances will be held in Harbor Park starting at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Fireworks will go off around 9:45 p.m. And on On Sunday, the Fisherman’s Picnic Parade will begin at 1 p.m. It’s a great parade.

In Hovland, artists and artisans will hold the Third Annual Art Sale at the Chicago Bay Marketplace from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Chicago Bay Market’s parking lot. Expect to find pottery, photography and crafts, as well as yummy treats at the Market.

On Wednesday, a fundraiser for the Gunflint Trail Volunteer Fire Department will be held at Fire Hall No. 1 at Mid-Trail from noon to 4 p.m.

It features a flea market and boutique, and a live auction at 1:30 p.m. under the big tent. Raffle tickets to win a handcrafted quilt donated by the Mid-Trail Quilters will be sold as well.

Exhibits:

Hazel Belvo and Marcia Cushmore are exhibiting new work at the Johnson Heritage Post this month, including paintings, drawings and prints.

“Old Norway” by Marcia Cushmore is at the Johnson Heritage Post Gallery.

The exhibit continues through Aug. 12. The Heritage Post is closed on Tuesdays. It is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and Monday and from 1-4 p.m. Sunday.

In Duluth, the Zeitgeist Arts Cafe will hold an opening reception for an exhibit of photographs by Kerry Gauthier.

Photography by Kerry Gauthier. He will be exhibiting his work at the Zeitgeist Arts Cafe in Duluth.

The opening reception for Gauthier is from 5-7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 6.

Also in Duluth, the Tweed Museum of Art continues its exhibit, “Treasures from Home.”

“Four Horsemen,” print by Dean Meeker is at the Tweed Museum of Art.

“Treasures from Home” features favorite works of local collectors. The exhibit concludes at the end of this month.

In Thunder Bay, Christi Belcourt’s retrospective with Isaac Murdock, “Uprising: The Power of Mother Earth”continues at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery.

“Honoring My Spirit Helpers” by Christi Belcourt is at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery.

The Art of the Elements gallery in rural Grand Marais at the Frykman Art Studio is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays throughout the summer. The gallery will be participating in the Fall Studio Tour Sept. 28-Oct. 7.

Martye Allen’s sculpture, Bear with Raven” is one of the pieces at the Art of the Elements gallery in rural Grand Marais.

The Art of the Elements gallery is located at 306 County Rd. 44. Call 387-1949 for more info.

Two Harbors painter David Gilsvik has new work at Sivertson Gallery.

Jasper Lake Sunset by David Gilsvik.

And new work by regional artists as well as prints by Betsy Bowen are being exhibited at Betsy Bowen’s Studio & Galleries.

Jeanne Hedstrom is exhibiting this painting at Betsy Bowen’s Studio & Galleries.

Kristin Blomberg is exhibiting her work at the North Shore Winery.

“North Shore” by Kristin Blomberg is at the North Shore Winery.

Upcoming:

A picnic operetta is coming to the Finland Historical Society in Finland on Aug 17. “Falstaff and the Working Wives of Lake County,” a production of the Twin Cities opera group, Mixed Precipitation, is an edible opera adventure that is touring Minnesota this summer. The operetta, an adaptation of Otto Nicolai’s German opera, “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” includes a bit of Minnesota history and the music of Bruce Springsteen.

The cast from Mixed Precipation, in one of their performances.

“Falstaff and the Working Wives of Lake County” will be performed at 2 p.m. Aug. 17. Stay tuned for details.

The Carpenter Ants are one of the bands scheduled to perform for this year’s Radio Waves Music Festival sponsored by WTIP Community Radio. The festival will be held at Sweetheart’s Bluff in the Grand Marais Rec Park Sept. 7-9 under the Big Tent. In all, 25 acts will take the stage at this year’s festival. To see the complete line-up and for more info, click here.

Art News:

In other WTIP news, the radio station was recently featured in a story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Marnie McMillan, one of the co-hosts for WTIP’s morning show. Photo by Anthony Souffle, Star-Tribune.

The headline for the story is “WTIP in Grand Marais: A Deep Woods Dose of Radio Charm.” To read the story, click here.

Members of the Northwoods Fiber Guild recently spent a day at North House Folk School colorful book bags for the Grand Marais Public Library. The idea to make cloth book bags for the library came from Jo Wood, as part of project to encourage choosing a reusable cloth bag over a plastic or paper bag.

Nancy Backlund, incoming president of the Northwoods Fiber Guild and Amanda St. John, assistant director of the library, show to cloth book bags now available for use at the library. They are free for everyone to use.

The book bags come in two types: a traditional cloth bag with handles and a T-shirt bag, with the collar and sleeves cut out to make a great book bag. All the bags will be at the library and available for anyone to use, free of charge. The Fiber Guild has already scheduled another sewing session at North House to make more of them.

And singer/songwriter Maria Nickolay has some news: