The Marshall High School marching band marches through downtown Albion at the Festival of the Forks parade on Saturday morning. Along with other parade staples like fire trucks, dancers and motorcycles, the band followed the parade route down Superior Street (Photo by Bonnie Lord).
From the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Superior Street all the way down to the Calhoun County District Library, downtown Albion was filled with tents, vendors, food and people attending the Festival of the Forks.
The festival, according to its website, has been held annually since 1967 on the third full weekend of September and is a celebration of Albion’s diversity and heritage. The event began Friday afternoon and continued through Saturday evening. This year the festival had 31 sponsors, including Albion College.
The first day of the festival included the opening of a carnival and petting zoo in Reiger park, and was set to include a “Kanoe the Kazoo Free Paddle,” though rain and forecasts of thunderstorms and lightning canceled the event.
Executive Director of the Kalamazoo River Watershed Council Doug McLaughlin said this was the first year the festival was set to incorporate the paddle. He added that the council had been working with the Director of CSE Monica Day to “get people out on the water and increase awareness of the river” and “tweak curiosity and interest in exploring this river.”
“The plan was a great one, we’ve been foiled by the weather,” McLaughlin said, adding that the organizers are “absolutely” planning to try again next year.
The second day of the festival was attended by a variety of organizations, businesses, food trucks and families. Among them was Albion’s Big Read, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. Big Read Director and English Professor Jess Roberts said the Big Read has been at every festival since its creation in 2015.
“It’s as big as pre-COVID days,” Roberts said. “Maybe bigger. It feels good.”
Brenda Baldwin, the owner of On the Roll, stands at the window of her food truck with a pile of pasta. The food truck serves everything on garlic bread, including spaghetti, chicken fettuccine, portabello fettuccine and pulled pork mac and cheese, which Baldwin said is their bestseller (Photo by Bonnie Lord).A woman looks through a table of books at the annual festival book sale at the Albion District Library on Friday. From fiction to suspense, cookbooks, history and children’s books, the sale offered a wide variety for low prices from 50 cents to a few dollars (Photo by Bonnie Lord).A Whitehouse Nature Center van tows a rack of canoes in front of Riverside Apartments on a rainy day. Though a paddle was scheduled on the first day of the festival, the event was canceled due to weather (Photo by Bonnie Lord).Community member Joedy Brown holds two laser-cut pieces she designed herself as a part of her and her husband’s small business, Freeze Dry Dude, which sells freeze-dried foods, laser-cut decorations and 3D-printed sculptures. Though this is their first time having a booth, Brown said she was “born and raised here in Albion,” and has attended the festival every year (Photo by Bonnie Lord).Attendees of the festival visit a vendor displaying a multitude of foam animals on long sticks, mimicking the animal walking with the holder (Photo by Bonnie Lord).Two drag queens wearing crowns and sashes ride in a car for Albion Pride. Volunteer Coordinator of Battle Creek Pride Pam Mccoy, who drove the car, said the group was “making history today” as the first Festival of the Forks parade they participated in (Photo by Bonnie Lord).A group holds a banner and signs for Libbi Urban’s congressional campaign, waving at the audience. Voting was a running theme during the festival, and other campaigns including Albion Mayor Victoria Snyder’s reelection campaign walked the parade (Photo by Bonnie Lord).A stilt walker dressed like a monarch butterfly swirls their skirt as they walk down the parade route (Photo by Bonnie Lord).Four men ride motorcycles along the parade route, passing the Ludington Center (Photo by Bonnie Lord).An Albion Township fire truck rolls down the parade route, children waving from the back window (Photo by Bonnie Lord).
Editor’s Note – 9:21 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25: A caption was corrected to Albion Pride.
Bonnie Lord is a junior from Alma, Michigan and an environmental science major at Albion College. She is driven by community, justice and sustainability. She enjoys bird watching, reading and dismantling the patriarchy.
Contact Bonnie via email at bfl10@albion.edu.
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