The 2025 Fourth of July three-day weekend has passed, but Door County offers plenty of unique things to do on the remaining weekends of July.
Throughout the month, local clubs and organizations are presenting special weekend events. Here’s a quick look at five of them focusing on Belgian and Amish culture and heritage, crafts, games, fireworks, planes, root beer and boiled whitefish to check out over the next couple of weekends.
July 10-13: Art, Craft and Amish Quilt Sale, Jacksonport
This popular twice-a-year event presented by Jacksonport Cottage – Gallery and Gifts features handmade quilts, of course, but there also are plenty of other artisan-crafted items, artist demonstrations and specialty food items.
The focal point is the more than 100 handmade Amish quilts in a variety of styles, colors, patterns and sizes, from baby to king-sized, that will be on hand. They’ll be turned on a regular basis by staff, and explanations of the quilts will be given as they are presented. Chairs are set up in the quilt gallery for those wishing to view the turnings.
Along with the quilts, other Amish handcrafted crafts items will be on display and for sale, including throw pillow covers, table runners, placemats, pot holders, table centers, quillows, spice mats, rugs, Amish dolls, miniature quilts and a variety of Amish baskets.
The show also has a Children’s Table, with cloth books, crayon play aprons, wood toys, kitchen utensil aprons, play work tools and cloth dolls, and a Purse Table with pocket purses, handcrafted purses and bags, cloth checkbook covers, eyeglasses cases and cloth book covers. There also will be two tables offering fabric for sale with everyday, seasonal and holiday patterns.
Gift items handmade by local artists also will be available, including new hand-turned single-piece and pieced wooden bowls made from a variety of native hardwoods by Mike Walker and wood boxes created by Don Juers. Fabrics and sewn items, candles, soaps and doll clothes are among the other locally crafted items that will be available.
Artists who will demonstrate their work and have items for sale during the show include Chris Steinhagen with handcrafted brooms, glass painter June Grutza and watercolor/collage print artist Sandra L. Peterson.
Unique food items always are for sale at the show, highlighted by the ever-popular Amish cashew crunch (available while supplies last). Also available are Amish caramels and Yoder Popcorn, a premium popcorn raised in Shipshewana, Indiana, in the heart of the state’s Amish communities.
The quilt show runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, July 10-13, in the Fernwood Gardens Ballroom at Mr. G’s, 5890 State 57, 2 miles south of Jacksonport. Admission is $1 for ages 9 and older; ages 8 and younger are admitted free but must be accompanied by an adult at all times. Door prize drawings offer $25 gift certificates for Jacksonport Cottage or future shows; winners need not be present at time of the drawing. The second of the two annual Amish quilt shows for 2025 takes place Oct. 9-12.
For more information, call 920-823-2288, visit jacksonportcottage.com or email jacksonportcottage@gmail.com.
July 11-13: 64th annual Belgian Days, Brussels
The Brussels Lions Club sponsors this popular three-day festival in Southern Door County, but you don’t have to have the area’s deep Belgian roots to enjoy the food and festivities.
The Belgian theme runs through the food available at the festival, starting with fresh Belgian waffles from 8 to 10:30 a.m. July 12. It continues at the food stands, which open at 5:30 p.m. July 11 and 10 a.m. July 12 and 13 to dish out authentic Belgian pie (the most traditional fillings are prune topped with cheese and rice pudding), trippe (Belgian sausage), jutt (a sort of Belgian mashed potatoes with veggies and other foods blended in) and booyah (the hearty meat-and-veggies stew). Burgers and other less-Belgian food and drinks will be available.
Adding to the Belgian theme is a cooyah tournament starting at noon July 12. That’s a Belgian, trick-taking card game.
For more Belgian heritage activities, the nearby Belgian Heritage Center is offering an hourlong narrated bus tour at 8:30 a.m. July 12 to visit and highlight stories about the area’s roadside chapels, traditional Belgian houses and cemeteries, followed by a guided tour of the Belgian Heritage Center campus (the former St. Mary of the Snows church) including its votive chapel and restored schoolhouse/convent. Tickets are $25 per person and reservations are strongly encouraged; call 920-619-6363 or email contact@belgianheritagecenter.org.
The heritage center also hosts presentations at 10:30 a.m. July 12 on the history of Door County’s Belgian community and on the Great Fire of 1871 that decimated the local community.
Perhaps the Sunday highlight of Belgian Days is the traditional Sunday parade through Brussels at 10:30 a.m. July 13. Floats, tractors and more will head along County C to the festival grounds.
Other activities include live music all three days; a run/walk (1, 2 or 4 miles, sponsored by Brussels-Union-Gardner Emergency Medical Responders, 8 a.m. July 12); inflatable games for children starting at noon July 12 and 13; a cornhole tournament (noon July 12); the annual baseball and softball tournament, running all three days; and a raffle drawing to close the festival at 4:30 p.m. July 13 (need not be present to win).
Gates open at 3 p.m. July 11 and 7 a.m. July 12-13 for Belgian Days at Brussels Town Park, 1366 Junction Road, just off County C and DK. Admission is $2 (there is a fee to enter the various tournaments) and all proceeds go toward local community charities, scholarship programs and the state, national and international Lions Club charities. No pets or carry-ins are allowed.
For more information, including a poster with phone numbers for the various events, visit facebook.com/BelgianDaysBrusselsWI or e-clubhouse.org/sites/brusselswi.
July 12: Root Beer Festival, Sturgeon Bay
The Door County Historical Society holds its 11th annual celebration of the popular summer beverage at its Heritage Village, an interpretive center of the society that also operates an interpretive site at Eagle Bluff Lighthouse in Peninsula State Park.
In the 1870s, pharmacist Charles Hires began selling Hires Root Tea and promoted it as “The Great Health Drink.” He experimented with flavorings from trees and plants like sassafras and sarsaparilla, wintergreen, birch bark, herbs and juniper berries, mixing and boiling until he developed his combination.
In 1876, he presented Hires Root Beer at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, the nation’s 100th anniversary celebration. The Library of Congress has cookbooks that contain recipes from 10 or 20 years before he began to sell his version. But Hires gets credit as the first person to produce and market root beer throughout the country.
The historical society’s festival features root beer tastings, root beer floats, information on the history of root beer, a brewing demonstration, historic family games, live music with polka lessons, and more.
Root Beer Festival takes place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 12 at Heritage Village, 2041 Michigan St., Sturgeon Bay (adjacent to Crossroads at Big Creek). Admission is $5 for ages 18 and older. For more information, call 920-421-2332, visit doorcountyhistoricalsociety.org or email office@doorcountyhistoricalsociety.org.
July 12: Freedom Fest and fireworks cruise, Sister Bay
If you didn’t get enough fireworks the weekend before, the Sister Bay Advancement Association offers its annual post-Fourth Freedom Fest.
The idea came about several years ago when the association decided to hold a July event that celebrated Independence Day without competing with all the other Fourth of July festivals across the county. Thus, fireworks will be launched over the water at dusk at Sister Bay Marina.
For more information, call 920-854-2812 or visit sisterbay.com.
And, Sister Bay Scenic Boat Tours has space available as July 8 for the July 12 cruise to the Freedom Fest fireworks in Sister Bay. This cruise, aboard a double-decker boat with bathrooms, full accessibility, snacks and a nonalcoholic bar, departs at 8:30 p.m. from the company’s dock at Sister Bay Marina. Tickets are $42, reservations are strongly recommended and guests should consider bringing a jacket for the nighttime chill. For reservations or more information on the cruise, call 920-421-4444 or visit doorcountyboats.com.
July 19: 72nd annual Fly-In Fish Boil, Washington Island
Washington Island Airport is the center of activity as the Washington Island Lions Club sponsors its annual fly-in – yes, you can bike, drive or walk in, too – and fish boil, a tradition across Door County where freshly caught whitefish are cooked in a large kettle with potatoes and onions as people watch and wait for the chef to squirt a flammable liquid on the fire under the kettle, causing a massive flareup and the popular “boil over.” Hot dogs and ice cream also are available. The event also features hay rides and live music.
For more information, visit facebook.com/washingtonislandchamber. And if you’re not actually flying in or already on the island, you’ll need to take the Washington Island Ferry Line from the Northport pier at the tip of the Door Peninsula. For ferry information, call 920-847-2546 or visit wisferry.com.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Festivals and special events in Door County, July 10-19: Here’s your guide
Reporting by Christopher Clough, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
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