Jena Osterhout has always dreamed of being a singer despite her stage fright. However, growing up in the southern part of Michigan’s upper peninsula, there are not many opportunities to perform publicly.
“Folkfest is a festival is a festival that goes on every summer in Manistique, and it just means a lot to me because I’ve been coming here every year because I grew up in Manistique and I have a passion for music and I’ve always wanted to sing,” said Osterhout.
The annual two-day festival hosts “Yoopers Got Talent”, a local talent display that presents Osterhout with the opportunity to perform. Yooper is slang for someone who lives in the Upper Peninsula.
“So, when I got old enough and worked out of my stage fright, and I finally, when I was 12 years old, got to sing at Folkfest, and I’ve been doing it every year since,” said Osterhout.
Paul Walker, an organizer of this year’s Folkfest, said the festival started in 1990 and every year it feels like a family reunion for the town.
“It was just like a one day event where people would bring in different ethnic foods, and they would try ethnic foods, and over time Folkfest evolved because people wanted a place to go and have live music,” said Walker.
Walker said Folkfest feels like a family reunion for the Manistique community of about 3,000 people, though the festival often attracts tourists.
Manistique native Joey VanDyck said he attends the festival to see people who are typically gone from the Upper Peninsula during the year, and he was happy to attend this year’s Folkfest because it was cancelled last year due to COVID-19.
“It gets me out of the house every once and a while and it’s always so fun every year,” said VanDyck.
Another Manistique resident, Kendra Hayden, said Folkfest draws lots of tourists, which is important for the economy. Hayden said that the second day is usually busier than the first though the events of the first day last through the night.
“It’s a tourism thing that happens after Fourth of July every year,” said Hayden. “It means a lot to Manistique in a way that it brings people and attracts people here.”