By Scott Sullivan
Editor
“It” was about: Saugatuck intoxication and enchantment this Venetian Weekend.
Seamen standing watches onboard or in ports here nights drank in cooling trade winds during nights warming to low-80s sunshine by middays.
First-timers came to experience what “it,” the buzz is — Enigmatic? Magic? Whatever, it was nice to be nautical. Many more were returnees, swapping legends, lore, lies and laughter from forever back.
On the waterfront, white boats crisscrossed Lake Michigan like daytime stars on a blue-field flag. From the dune top north of Oval Beach, red-and-white striped umbrellas and sun-screened humans spread south over sand while, scanning north past the Kalamazoo River pierhead the coast softened into mist pledging more Pure Michigan laid thataway, ahead.
Gates opened in Coghlin Park Friday at 5 p.m., with Venetian organizer April Gundy pausing to pose with Saugatuck-Douglas Area Convention and Visitors Bureau co-conspirators Lisa Mize and Ashley Siebelink poised and ready.
Beverages began to flow, paired with food sold from trailers Smokin’ Joe’s BBQ and Pizza Parliament. PP’s Uriah from Hungary did not look at all oppressed by cramped-kitchen and oven heat while spinning and forming dough into crusts, spreading toppings on it, then stepping outside to sit in a lawn chair to take in the spectacle while pies cooked.
“Now’s my time for the gypsy life,” he said. “What a place to be!”
By 7:20, when fave ‘80s band Star Farm took the outdoor stage, dancers and singers-along were primed to bursting. The guitarist’s lead Gibson chimed out the opening of U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name” — striking, too, a chord for Mt. Baldhead Challenge runners who start to “I want to run” through the wooded lakeshore trails. So the high summer night began …
Saturday’s Dinghy Poker Run launched before I could reach Coghlin Park through traffic, so I drove around Kal Lake trying to catch up with dinghy crews spraying water cannons at each other.
This, once again fighting car, trailer and truck traffic, proved illusory, so I drove back to Coghlin.
There, survivors of the first vessel in haggled to improve the poker hand they’d collected at designated stops by buying cards from fundraiser organizers Annie Hotwagner and Nancy McDonnall from sponsor Wolf’s Marine.
“That’s one tradition,” said Annie. “Another is dinghy teams swap cards while still on the water. Rules,” she added, rolling her eyes, “are, of course, scrupulously enforced.”
The free market reigned too inland on Butler Street where the Celtic band Three Penny Bit busked outside downtown Saugatuck’s Mize Rose Garden.
“In Ireland a three-penny bit is a 3-inch nail,” the guitarist explained. “Can we play you a tune? On guitar, violin, pennywhistle and Irish drum, Three Penny Bit offered up a jig.
Further north, the Village Square Arts & Crafts Fair — another funder, this for school art scholarships — occupied that green venue, overlooked by smaller fry daring new playground summits.
As lake dinghies thinned out and dusk fell, lit and decorated larger vessels made for “R.J.’s Place” — waters just offshore the late Tower Marine owner R.J. Petersons’ longtime boathouse museum and home. Now the old sea yarns really flowed.
Having mustered, they motored south past downtown crowds in Wicks Park and Coghlin gathering for fireworks like dandelions lit, still exploding in the sky
The Saugatuck-Douglas Rotary Club, working in concert with the CVB and other generous sponsors, made possible this year’s Venetian Fest.
Kudos go too to Lake Vista Supervalu grocery, D.K. Construction, Saugatuck Brewing Co., JPD Construction, Safe Harbor Tower Marine, Ivy House, Comcast, Freedom Boat Club, Ship ‘N Shore Hotel, Retro Boat Rentals and The Red Dock, RB Marine, HIS Distributing, The Beachway Resort, Forward Edge Services and many more.
Scores of volunteers from the Rotary Club, Star of Saugatuck, Wolf’s Marine and Singapore Yacht Club organize the Venetian Fest weekend every year.
All proceeds from the event are to be designated to the Rotary Club’s 501c3 foundation for projects that ensure access to, safety on and ecological health of our local waterways.
After all, that’s what the Saugatuck Venetian Fest is about.
