Labor Day Festival is another success

By Charles Sercombe

Perhaps the hippie dude summed it up best about this year’s Hamtramck Labor Day Festival:

“Hamtramck is the best city in Detroit.”

We couldn’t agree more, and this past Labor Day weekend was a perfect example of why Hamtramck shines so much: We are a fun and interesting town.

This year’s festival barely happened at all, but the volunteers who agreed to pull it together at the last minute did a Herculean job.

The weather behaved too, although cloudy skies from Hurricane Isaac did threaten to open up and rain here and there. Otherwise it was a sunny and gorgeous weekend.

On Tuesday, as if on cue, a much needed downpour finally let loose, and helped wash Jos. Campau from the built up beer slosh and barbecue grease.

At press time organizers were still tallying up the bills and didn’t know yet if the festival made money.

This year’s festival may be done and over with, but that doesn’t mean organizers are taking it easy.

“We’ll be starting to plan next year’s festival next week,” said co-organizer Konrad Maziarz.

Also in the works is to set up the festival as an official non-profit organization. That will help attract donations and possible grants, Maziarz said.

“We’d like to use the profits to make improvements to Veterans Park and other places in the city,” he said.