Festival continues Saturday from 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Read more: Local, State, Business, Community, News, Escanaba, Pioneer Days, Big Ole Fest, UP State Fairgrounds, Logging
ESCANABA -- Much of the Upper Peninsula prides itself on its rich logging history. Though logging still remains, the tools and techniques have changed a bit over the years. This weekend in Escanaba, you're invited back to logging's olden days.
The fourth annual Pioneer Days Big Ole Fest takes you back to the late 19th century, a seemingly simpler time.
"We're in the Upper Peninsula, and this is what happened in the U.P.," says John Prokos of Escanaba. "And as a whole, some of these old timers that may be seeing this or may come out will reminisce as to what they had done in the logging camps."
But Big Ole is not just for the ole timers.
"Our goal is to have a clean, family-friendly festival, and the kids can actually learn a little bit about what happened 100-150 years ago," says Bruce Belanger, a lumberjack and event coordinator.
Lumberjacks and Lumberjanes take lumber audience members on a tour of all things lumber--a Big Ole sized obstacle course gives the real experience of what it was like to work with wood a century ago, food and drink concessions are available to satisfy hungry Lumberjacks, and the Steam and Gas Village at the fairgrounds is open for business.
Big Ole Fest's gates open at 10 a.m. Saturday morning, and the festivities are scheduled to wind down around 8 p.m.
The Lark Brothers will be makin' music inside the beer tent starting around 5 p.m., and as long as the crowds stick around, the gates will remain open.
