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Festival Camping

Festival-weekend camping-tag update

As of noon, July 1, we have ONE Area C camping tag and TWO Area B camping tags left. Ample camping tags remain for Areas A, D and E. (If you have a Thursday-night reservation with the Tourist Park, we are holding two appropriate-area weekend Festival camping tags for you. Those may only be purchased by the person whose name is on the Thursday reservation with the Tourist Park. Thank you for your understanding.

Thursday-night camp-site lottery update

Pre-Festival camping update

The winners of the Thursday-night, pre-Festival camp sites have been drawn. As of May 25, the Marquette Parks and Rec department has mailed reservation letters to the winners and is working on the list they provide for Hiawatha. Returned checks and apps for those not selected in the drawing were mailed by May 21.

New for 2010

Even if you know the Hiawatha camping process by heart and planned to skip the information below,

please read the following changes:

The deadline to enter the Thursday-night pre-Festival camping lottery is easier to meet. Your entry must be postmarked BY May 1 (not on May 1, as in the past).
The Marquette Parks and Rec staff must receive your app and payment BY May 7.
You must include a stamped, self-addressed, size No. 10 envelope with your lottery application. Apps without return envelopes will be destroyed and the checks shredded.
Only two Thursday camp sites may be requested under each household and only ONE site per request.
For the Festival weekend, the Marquette County Health Department has reduced the number of tags we can issue. We'll have 12 fewer tags for Area D and and 22 fewer for Area F. This will not affect your lottery application.

Here's the rest of the scoop on camping for the Hiawatha Festival:

For Hiawatha Festival weekend camping, from noon Friday to noon Monday of the Festival weekend, you will need a Festival weekend camping tag that you can order with your tickets at $15 per tag. You will need a tag for everything you set up at your site, including screened eating tents and tarps hanging over an area of your camp. Those tags are good for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday night of the Festival, until noon the Monday after.

For the Thursday night before each Festival, all the regular, numbered Tourist Park campsites will be assigned to those who win them in the Park's pre-Festival camping lottery. More about that in a minute.

Camping Area updates

During ticket sales, please check here for camping-tag and area availability.

That Thursday-night camping lottery

Each May, the Tourist Park staff conducts a drawing for pre-Hiawatha Thursday-night camp sites. Those who enter the lottery must include a stamped, self-addressed, size No. 10 envelope with the lottery application. Apps without return envelopes will be destroyed and the checks shredded. If you send a return envelope, you will receive either a site-confirmation or your returned deposit check.
If you win a Thursday-night site, please let us know when you order your tickets. We set aside two appropriate-area Festival camping tags for everyone with a Thursday-night site.
We will only sell those two tags to you. Please request those tags yourself, even if you plan to share them with friends.
The tags we set aside for Thursday-night campers will only be sold to people on the Thursday-night list we receive from the Park.

If you win a Thursday-night site and discover you will not use it, please contact the Tourist Park at 906-228-0465 to cancel that reservation. There's always a waiting list for these coveted, pre-Festival camp sites, and your cancellation will make someone's Festival weekend much happier! Thanks!

Please remember that Tourist Park employees are summer temps, and our event is pretty complicated. An inexperienced staff member may tell you to call Hiawatha about Thursday, pre-Festival camping, but that's not correct. It is possible that Hiawatha might take over the pre-Festival Thursday night camping operation in the future, but, for 2010, your Thursday-night camping arrangements are with the Park staff.

For full details on Festival camping, read on. And we apologize in advance for how complicated this will seem. The Marquette Tourist Park has been a lovely venue for us since 1984, but the requirements of Marquette City and Marquette County - plus our own needs - make the camping complicated.
OK. Brace yourself: here we go:

The Tourist Park has 110 regular sites, including full hookups, electric-only and no hookups. You can see the assortment on the Parks and Recreation part of the City's website. Or you may scroll down to the two maps at the bottom of this page. The first shows Hiawatha's lettered camping areas for the Festival; the second shows the Park's regular, numbered campsites.

For the three nights that Hiawatha rents the park - the Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights of the Festival - we're allowed to put 966 camping units in the Park. (It used to be 1,000, but the Marquette County Health Department has reduced the number of sites allowed in two areas as of 2010.)
Each unit (regular tent, camper, RV, screen tent, tarp covering part of your camp, etc.) must have a $15 Festival camping tag, which is good for those three nights. Those are purchased from Hiawatha with Festival ticket orders.

For all other nights of the season, you make a regular reservation with the Tourist Park.
HOWEVER, for the Thursday night before our Festival, the holders of the basic 110 Park sites are selected by a lottery conducted by the Park staff. Even if you had a site on the nights before that Thursday, you would have to "win" the site in the lottery to keep it that night. Your reservation is still with the Marquette Tourist Park, and that's who you pay. But you have to win your site in the lottery. Because everyone who wins a site in the Thursday-night lottery intends to stay on it throughout the Festival, the only way to have a hook-up site during the Festival is to enter the Thursday-night lottery and be fortunate enough to get the site you want. More on the lottery in a minute.
In spite of that, every year people who do not win full or partial hook-up sites in the Thursday lottery bring RVs and campers to the Festival anyway.
Once the Park opens for our Festival at noon on Friday, everyone who did not win a spot for Thursday night enters the Park in order of their arrival and finds a site amidst the Thursday-nighters on a first-come, first-served basis.
Not winning a Thursday site does not mean you can't bring a camper, but it does mean you won't be able to hook it up, and you will not be on an official, numbered Park campsite. There is some sharing of electrical capacity among Festival-goers, but we can't promise that.

To enter the Thursday-night lottery, your entry must be postmarked BY May 1, and must be received by Marquette Parks and Recreation BY May 7. Your app must include your deposit of one night's site rent plus registration fee, and you must enclose a stamped, self-addressed No.10 envelope.

The Park staff will conduct the drawing and notify all applicants who include a self-addressed stamped envelope of the outcome. People who receive a site confirmation from the Park staff should also receive a Festival ticket order form as part of that mailing. Site winners may use that form to order Festival tickets and Hiawatha-weekend camping tags. Please do not use that form if you have ordered tickets by some other means. Thank you!
Again - not winning a Thursday site doesn't mean you can't come and camp for the Festival, but it does mean you won't be able to camp with hookups.

Whether you win a Thursday site or not, if you camp during the Festival weekend, you will need a Festival camping tag. Because we are limited to 966 of those (formerly 1,000, but the Marquette County Health Department reduced the number of sites allowed as of 2010), we generally run out before the end of ticket sales, and tags for the more camper/RV-friendly areas of the Park are the ones that go the fastest. Camping tags for the Festival weekend are issued by area (A through E). You'll find more information on camping, as well as a map of the Festival's camping areas, in the Festival-ticket information. A Festival-camping area map also appears below.

We realize this sounds fearsome, and it can be a hassle, but every year lots of people get through it and enjoy the Festival with or without a Thursday camp site, so we hope this doesn't discourage you from joining us.
There are also other nice campgrounds within 30 minutes of the Tourist Park, so you might have options there, too. Those include
Perkins Park in Big Bay
The Gitche Gumme RV Park near Harvey
Country Village Campground in Ishpeming

If this makes your head hurt and you want to talk to a live person about it, the Hiawatha office is open every Tuesday and Wednesday from noon to 6 p.m. (Eastern), 906-226-8575. We check our messages throughout the week.