The inaugural Pirate Fest is coming to downtown Cheboygan June 19-21.
The free event will feature three days of community activities. The new festival was established by entrepreneurs Brandy Mulak, who owns Busy Bees Garden and The Dipper, and Laura Derk, owner of Scrolls Unlimited. Both women were graduates of the 2025 Leadership Cheboygan program.
“Being a part of that program catapulted our idea,” Mulak said. “It gave us a major platform to think of an event that would be (beneficial) to the community.”
Leadership Cheboygan is a community leadership development program operated by the Cheboygan Area Chamber of Commerce. The chamber’s executive director Carole Yeck said it is a roughly nine-month program designed to develop emerging leaders willing to tackle civic, nonprofit, business and public service roles throughout Cheboygan County.
“This is a great example of how collaboration works when you have strong leaders and a great idea,” Yeck said. “(Mulak and Derk) showed a lot of creativity in creating this.”
The vision for Pirate Fest is to eventually grow it into a weeklong festival, Mulak said. She doesn’t want the event to get too big this year, which is why it is being marketed mainly on the event’s Cheboygan Pirate Invasion Facebook page. Still, the three days will include a mix of events ranging from a flash mob and sword fighting to world-class sandcastle building, bounce houses for kids and mermaids.
Arnold Transit will dock a pirate-themed ship at the city marina for guests to visit. Mulak plans to invite a couple of food trucks but also hopes downtown restaurants will get involved. Local banks are chipping in to hide change totaling $500 in various locations around the downtown for kids to find as “buried treasure.”
“We want this to be a beautiful community event in the downtown space, but we’ll start (small) this year,” Mulak said.
There are usually around 12 students in the Leadership Cheboygan program annually. The 2026-27 Leadership Cheboygan program will run from August 2026 through early June 2027. Students are involved with 12 modules throughout the year.
Anyone interested in being considered for the next class can contact the Cheboygan Area Chamber of Commerce by calling 231-445-9045. Mulak encourages those interested to apply, and Yeck agrees.
“The program is designed to help designate and (identify) our future civic leaders,” Yeck said. “We’re going to be looking for students for August. It’s a great program so we would love to hear from (interested candidates).”
Yeck said the organizers would like Pirate Fest to mirror the impact that the Michigan Waterways Festival had in Cheboygan up until the late 2010s. That event evolved from the city’s Riverfest event that began in the 1980s.
“These are events that went away for a bit but the (Leadership Cheboygan graduates) wanted to bring them back with some new (ideas),” Yeck said.
This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Ahoy! Cheboygan’s first annual Pirate Fest set for June 19-21
Reporting by M. Alan Scott, Cheboygan Daily Tribune / Cheboygan Daily Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By M. Alan Scott, Cheboygan Daily Tribune | USA TODAY Network
