Hovland Arts Festival

The Hovland Arts Festival will be at the Hovland Town Hall July 2-3. The festival features more than 20 artists exhibiting in a variety of mediums, live music and Treg Axtell’s Lake Superior herring burgers. Storyteller Shannon Crossbear will be there with her gypsy wagon and Marla Huber will be doing henna tattoos. Hovland artist David Hahn will be sketching individual portraits.

The art will include everything from birchbark weaving and birchbark baskets to Ojibwe beadwork, silver jewelry, photography, wind chimes, wood-turned bowls, fiber art, paintings and more.

Musicians this year include Blueberry Jaam, Bump & Barbara Jean, Eric Frost and Michael Monroe on Saturday, Pete Kavanaugh, Portage and the Flute Reed River Band on Sunday. There will also be a Sunday jam session from 10:15-11:30 a.m. Bring your instrument and join in.

The festival is from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each day. The public is invited.

The Grand Marais Arts Festival

The Grand Marais Art Festival features local and regional artists working in a wide variety of mediums.

The 21st Grand Marais Arts Festival July 9-10 will be even bigger and better this year with 75 booths exhibiting the work of local and regional artists in paintings, photography, mixed media, jewelry, baskets, handmade books, sculpture, pottery, prints and more. The artists are primarily from Minnesota (including Cook County) and Wisconsin, but they also come from as far away as Phoenix and Florida.

New this year—a tent featuring the work of local artists who rent studio space at the Grand Marais Art Colony. There will also be hourly artist demonstrations throughout the weekend as well as artist talks, and a variety of musicians playing in Harbor Park, including Michael Monroe and Briand Morrison. Mike Swindlehurst will be in the Art Colony tent helping people silk screen their own T-shirt.

The kick-off party for artists and the community will be at Sivertson Gallery on Friday night from 7-9 p.m. followed by a fire dancing performance in Harbor Park. The Art Festival runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 9, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, July 10.

Ely Blueberry Festival

Blueberries, art, music and fun at Ely's Blueberry Festival.

The Ely Blueberry Festival, which packs the town every summer with more than 40,000 visitors, will be July 29-31 this year. More than 300 exhibitors of original art, handcrafted items and ethnic foods set up their tents and displays for this annual event.

Artworks include garden art, paintings, photography, wood turning and wood carving, leatherwork, deerskin items, metal work, paddles, baskets, dolls and much more.

One of the iconic aspects of this festival is the great food, including all things blueberry, including homemade blueberry pancakes and blueberry pie.

The festival is held at Whiteside Park, and there’s plenty of live music, too. The Chromatones play on Friday, July 29 , Conga Se Menne play on Saturday, and the Barich Brothers play on Sunday. The festival is open from Friday noon to 7 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.