Annalese (left) and Nevaeh Skeels (right) take a ride on the swing ride at the midway of the Three Rivers Water Festival in 2024. This year’s Water Festival takes place beginning Thursday, June 12.
By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
THREE RIVERS — The start of summer in St. Joseph County is nearly here, and with that comes the annual festival season in areas around the county.
Kicking off the festival season, in its traditional Father’s Day weekend slot, is the Three Rivers Water Festival, which will celebrate its 68th edition next week from June 12-14.
The Water Festival features a variety of events, activities, games, rides, vendors and concerts throughout the city, and is the biggest weekend for visitors to the city. Three Rivers Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Christy Trammell said the festival is a big tradition in the city, and one that the Chamber is keeping alive year after year.
“It is pretty fantastic that we are able to do that for our community,” Trammell said.
This year’s theme of the Water Festival is “Dive into the World of Board Game Fun,” which was selected earlier this year by the festival’s committee. The theme will be present in a few areas during the festival, including the street parade, the Kids Zone, and the annual car show.
“It’s fun to have something tangible that people can really relate to, and the board game theme was a fun one that was selected this year,” Trammell said.
One of the biggest changes to the festival this year is the process for pre-ordering tickets and wristbands for the carnival midway. This year, instead of physical pre-orders at Harding’s Market and the Chamber of Commerce, Trammell said those presales will be done exclusively online through Anderson Midways and Innovative Ticketing.
“It’s very different than what we’ve had before, and we’re educating people that that’s the way to go this year,” Trammell said. “[Anderson Midways] said that’s the way a lot of the other [festivals] went a few years ago, and they just made that big change this year. So, it’s a trend nationwide.”
Tickets can be purchased online at www.andersonmidways.com, with QR codes linking to the ticketing page at some locations around the city, including at Harding’s Market. Presale prices for unlimited ride wristbands are $25 with a $1.75 ticketing fee, 15 ride tickets are $20 with a $1.65 ticketing fee, and 50 ride tickets are $50 with a $2.49 ticketing fee. Prices go up for ride wristbands from $25 to $30 after June 11.
Festivities kick off Thursday, June 12 with both the Ambassadors for Christ Chicken and Ribs Barbecue near the Fire Department and the Lions Club Ox Roast getting started at 11 a.m., with the Ox Roast going until 8 p.m. at their facility at 420 Sixth Ave., with food vendors at festival sites opening at noon. The carnival midway will open for the first time at 4 p.m. in the west city parking lot near Memory Isle Park, and the day wraps up with the annual street parade, which begins at 7 p.m. Monster truck rides at the city parking lot near the railroad tracks will be available after the parade.
Trammell said this year’s parade is expected to be another large parade, with the Three Rivers High School boys’ cross country team, which finished 12th out of 27 teams at the MHSAA Division 2 state finals in the fall, being named Grand Marshal.
“We continue to have strong support from our community in the parade, both from the participants and the spectators,” Trammell said. “It’s an opportunity for our community to highlight the businesses, organizations, and kids’ activities that are available here in the Three Rivers area.”
On Friday, June 13, the arts and crafts marketplace, which Trammell said they get “strong support” for, will open at 10 a.m., along with the food vendors and the chicken and ribs barbecue. The Ox Roast begins at 11 and goes until 8 p.m., and monster truck rides begin at noon. The carnival midway will also open at noon.
Friday also sees the return of three favorites from last year’s event to wrap up the day – the Soap Box Derby on Spring Street by Scidmore Park, which begins with free registration at 3 p.m. for ages 7-13; the Cornhole Tournament on Main Street in downtown, which begins at 5 p.m. with a $35 team entry fee; and the Silent Disco on Main Street in downtown, which runs from 6-8 p.m.
The Cornhole Tournament and the Silent Disco, Trammell said, will be a little bit closer together in terms of start time this year, with the Silent Disco moving up an hour from when it started last year.
“We’re just trying to get people from one event to the next, instead of having one finish and then start the next one and have a natural flow for both,” Trammell said.
Saturday, June 14, the final and biggest day of the Water Festival, kicks off early from 7-10:30 a.m. with the Firefighters Pancake Breakfast fundraiser at the Three Rivers Fire Department on West Michigan Avenue. The Lions Club will host the annual Turtle Derby that morning as well at 420 Sixth Ave., which begins with registration at 8:30 a.m. The Hope United Run will also begin behind the Fire Department at 9 a.m., while at the same time the popular Classic Car, Truck and Motorcycle Show will take place on Main Street downtown from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“It’s held downtown with the historic backdrop, so that’s something that continues to be a special thing for the car show,” Trammell said about the car show. She also noted parking could be a “challenge” with the ongoing construction of the amphitheater near the east parking lot.
The Three Rivers Woman’s Club will hold their annual pie sale this year during the car show, and will be selling pie by the slice or as a whole this year, and forgoing auctions like they have done the past couple of years; funds raised go to the club’s high school scholarship programs. At 10 a.m. Saturday, the Bicycle Rodero gets underway at the Elks Club at 603 W. Michigan Ave. and runs until noon, while the free Kids Zone will take place at Scidmore Park until 1 p.m. The arts and crafts marketplace, food vendors and chicken and ribs barbecue will also open at this time.
Trammell said the Kids Zone this year will feature a familiar face from past years, Joel Tacey.
“He is really spectacular in his entertainment with the crowd, and he engages them, brings them on stage. I’ve watched them before do things with fire, bubbles, and fun things that are safe and fascinate the kids,” Trammell said.
At 11 a.m. Saturday, the carnival midway will open for the final day of operation, while the Ox Roast will go from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. or until sold out. The Summer Fly-In at the Dr. Haines Municipal Airport at 1900 Hov Aire Dr. will also take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a $5 landing fee.
At 1 p.m. Saturday is a new official event on the calendar for the Water Festival, Yoga in the Park, which will take place at the Scidmore Park petting zoo pavilion. Trammell said there was a bit of a test run of the concept last year, with the Three Rivers Parks Department running it in full this year.
“Last year, we had guys from Harmony Yoga doing that, and this year, the Parks are doing that, so that will be a nice addition,” Trammell said.
Scidmore Park will also see the return of the Duck Race at 2 p.m. Saturday after a one-year hiatus. This year, proceeds from the sale of rubber ducks competing in the race will go to the Three Rivers Promise high school scholarship program.
Plenty of music will be available to listen to during Saturday’s festivities. The Three Rivers German Band will perform at the pavilion near the arts and crafts marketplace from noon to 1 p.m. and from 2 p.m. until finished. The Kalamazoo Concert Band will also perform at Scidmore Park once again near the Old Hospital site at 3 p.m., with visitor parking off Millard Street. To cap off the musical entertainment, country music artist Derek Winter will perform at the main stage near the Fire Department from 8-10 p.m.
The fireworks finale for the festival will begin after the Derek Winter concert at dusk, and will once again be synced to music that fits the board game theme of the festival. New this year, for those who may not be watching the fireworks directly at Memory Isle Park, WLKM-FM will be broadcasting the music that the fireworks will be synced to over the radio. Trammell said the partnership will be a good thing for both the festival and the fireworks display.
“We realized last year that unless you’re sitting in front of the speakers, you couldn’t really hear the music. So, that was reaching a very small audience, and this will allow us to reach a much larger audience,” Trammell said. “It took some creativity on [WLKM’s] end to figure out how to make it work, but we were able to work it out and offer it this year.”
Overall, Trammell said she is excited to be able to put on the Water Festival again for another year, and said they wouldn’t be able to do it without the volunteer work that goes into it.
“There’s hundreds of volunteers that it takes to pull off all the activities in this festival,” Trammell said. “There’s no way this could ever be done without volunteers, and it takes a lot to pull this off, and this is another time when our community shines.”
Announcements regarding event changes, weather delays/cancellations and other festival information can be found on the Three Rivers Water Festival Facebook page.
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
