National Cherry Festival
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The National Cherry Festival is a festival in Traverse City, Michigan in Northern Michigan. Founded in 1926, the mission of the National Cherry Festival is to celebrate & promote cherries, tourism and community involvement, and to enhance the economic, entertainment, and cultural interests of the Grand Traverse region.
Every year more than 500,000 attendees enjoy the National Cherry Festival which is now in its 80th year. Families can enjoy many kinds of activities from cherry pit spitting, pie eating contests, to the Grand Royale Parade in which the newly crowned Cherry Queen greets the crowds.
Originally held in mid- to late July to coincide with the cherry harvest, the Festival was moved to early July to take advantage of the July 4th weekend. Cherries are harvested with a "shaker", that quickly vibrates the trunk of the cherry tree and the ripe cherries fll off into a large, expandible tarp. [Cherry Harvester]. During the harvest approximately 200,000,000 pounds of tart (Montmorency) cherries are harvested. Other cherries, including sweet cherries and Balaton cherries are also harvested. The moderate climate, caused by the proximity of Lake Michigan and the sandy soil are why cherries grow so well in the region.
Traverse City claims to be the "Cherry capital of the World" and is in the Guinness Book of World Records for baking the world's largest cherry pie (for a pie 17' 6" weighing in at 28,350 pounds) unveiled at the festival on July 25, 1987. This replaced the pie baked nine years earlier in Charlevoix Michigan. This record was held until July 14, 1990, when a pie weighing 37,740 lbs 10 oz, 20 feet in diameter was baked and eaten by approximately 1500 people in Oliver, British Columbia (the Wine Capital of Canada) and earning an entry in the Guiness Book of World Records.
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