Cedar Polka Fest Turns 44 This Week; Port Oneida Fair Concludes Its Current Format

Two Leelanau County traditions hit milestones this August, and they landed on opposite ends of the spectrum. One reached an agreement with its township to keep the tent up. The other, older by two decades, wrapped up its final year in its current form. If you live in Cedar or Maple City, both stories are worth knowing, because together they say something about what it takes to keep a small-town event alive out here.

The Festival and a Proposed Ordinance

Cedar Polka Fest turns 44 this week, running Thursday through Sunday, August 27 through 30, under the big tent near the M&NE RR Cedar Depot. It's grown into one of the last true polka festivals left in the country, and this year it's expected to pull close to 10,000 people into a town whose year-round population you could seat in a school gymnasium.

Last December, according to The Ticker, the Solon Township Board considered adopting a new parks ordinance, one drafted by a board-appointed parks committee with language governing how township parks, including Cedar Community Park, could be used. The Polka Fest Foundation's executive director, Lisa Rossi-Brett, told the outlet that the ordinance as written would likely kill the festival. In the lead-up to the 2024 event, the parks committee had recommended the township require new deposits, fees, and inspections before leasing the tennis courts at Cedar Community Park to the festival.

The board ultimately sent the ordinance back to committee for revision rather than voting it through. Township officials clarified that the rule was never meant to touch events operating under special property use agreements, a category that would include both Polka Fest and the SnowBall Tournament. The Foundation is still pushing for language that explicitly exempts events like theirs in recognition of what they call the festival's historical significance. For 2026, there's a signed agreement between the township and the Foundation that holds regardless of whatever the parks ordinance eventually says. Next year is a different question.

Four Miles North, Port Oneida Fair Concludes Its Current Format

Port Oneida Fair held its final run in its current form on August 7 and 8 this year in the Port Oneida Rural Historic District inside Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, four miles north of Glen Arbor. The fair had spent more than two decades bringing the area's farm history back to life across four historic homesteads: Olsen, Dechow, Thoreson, and Kelderhouse. Visitors baled hay, watched broom-making and butter-churning, and toured a one-room schoolhouse that hadn't held a class in generations.

This year's theme, tied to the country's 250th anniversary, was billed as "Celebrating the Threads of a Nation." It turned out to be a fitting send-off, because the National Park Service and its partner organization, Sleeping Bear Forever, announced this would be the fair's final run in its current form. The announcement came after a period of lower attendance.

• 2012: attendance peaked at 4,392 visitors
• 2017: the only other year to top 4,000, at 4,140
• After 2019: turnout never climbed back above 3,000
• 2025: roughly 2,000 people showed up, less than half the 2012 peak

Attendance in recent years was below the earlier peaks. Sleeping Bear Forever, the Park Service, and the fair committee say they'll work with the community on a new vision for future events honoring the same history. What that looks like hasn't been announced.

Different Ways Local Traditions Are Organized

Put the two side by side and the contrast tells you something the individual stories don't. Port Oneida's history runs deeper than Cedar's. The farms in that historic district date to the 1850s, while Cedar's Polish festival tradition is a 20th-century story. Cedar Polka Fest has a dedicated 501(c)(3) foundation that promotes the event. Its work includes negotiating with the township, a free shuttle partnership with BATA that brings riders from Traverse City, food-truck arrangements, and participation in board meetings during parks-ordinance discussions.

Port Oneida Fair involved National Park Service staff and volunteer heritage groups. The two events had different organizational structures. They offer different examples of how local traditions are organized and presented.

If You're Going This Week

The schedule, if you haven't pulled it up yet:

A few things worth knowing before you go:

• Parking is first come, first served at the festival grounds and fills fast. Plan to walk, or use the drop-off zone in front of the tent.
• BATA runs free shuttles from Traverse City Thursday, Friday, and Saturday starting at 5pm, looping continuously from Meijer on US-31 through the BATA transfer station on Hall Street and into Cedar, with the last bus back at 11:30pm.
• Food trucks on site include Pierogi Rig, D&K Wood Fired, Cedar Tavern, Good To Go MI, and Krysia's Kitchen.
• No outside food, beverages, or coolers are allowed under the tent, including alcohol and refillable water bottles, per Michigan liquor control rules.
• Pets aren't allowed under the tent but are welcome at the outdoor events: the parade, the car and motorcycle show, and the craft and farmers market.
• If you want to run it off first, the Run 4 The Kielbasa four-miler and the shorter Pierogi Fun Run both start and end downtown Saturday morning, with packet pickup Friday, August 28, from 5 to 7pm in front of the tent.

Whatever the parks ordinance eventually says, this year's tent is up and the agreement is signed. Whether Port Oneida Fair returns in some new form is a question for another season, but for now it's fair to say the district will look a little quieter come next August.

This is the kind of week that makes Cedar and Maple City feel like a real town rather than a stop on M-22, and it's the kind of local rhythm we like tracking because we live in it too. If you're curious about more of what everyday life looks like out here, we've written before about the everyday texture of life in Cedar and Maple City. And if a polka weekend ever turns into a bigger question about property, permits, or what it takes to put down roots in this part of Leelanau, you know where to find us.

Relax. We got this. Leelanau Living Realty Group