Mark your Calendar...Festifools Parade, Ann Arbor, MI

We are lucky enough to have Ann Luke from Roosevelt Street Blog back with us to give a little preview and insider info about Festifools, one of the silliest and most festive days in Ann Arbor!

It’s been a long, cold winter in Michigan this year and to say that we are all eagerly awaiting the arrival of spring is probably a huge understatement!  Even during the mildest of winters, I think March and April can be the hardest months of the year to get through.  You’re done with the cold and snow and you’re tired of being cooped up, yet signs of warmer weather and the opportunity to spend more time outside seem slow in coming.  It’s always nice to have something fun to look forward to during this time, and one of my favorite Ann Arbor traditions in early April is the FestiFools Parade on Ann Arbor's Main Street.  While I didn’t discover it until 2012, it’s been delighting kids and adults alike since 2007 with “its vision of bringing people out into the streets for fun-filled, artistic foolery” with what is essentially a parade of enormous papier-mâché puppets!

I have two young daughters, ages 5 and 3, and I’m always trying to find fun activities that introduce them to art and engage them with it in unique and interesting ways.  I want them to understand that art encompasses so many wonderful and different things and that it can bring people together in unexpected ways.  This event certainly hits the mark on all accounts.  And I have to say that I love it as much or perhaps more than they do!  I’m always amazed by the artists’ creativity and the work they put into making their puppets.  The Stomp-like music keeps a fun beat going throughout the parade as well.

Mark your calendars!  This year’s parade is on Sunday, April 6 from 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. on Main Street between Washington and William.  You’ll want to arrive a little early.  While we didn’t discover this event until a few years ago, everyone else seems to know about it and the area fills up quickly.  It only lasts an hour, but they parade the puppets up and down Main Street multiple times, so if you arrive late or miss something the first time around, you can likely catch it again.  That said, once you’ve seen it, you’ve seen it.  We usually move on and grab an early dinner or enjoy the chance to pop into some of the shops while we’re downtown.

Looking for indoor art during our cold and snowy winter? I highly recommend the Detroit Institute of Art’s “Eye Spy” gallery game for a fun indoor art appreciation activity. Check out the the Mom Explores Michigan DIA link here and 10 Things to Do with Kids at the DIA here!