Roll out the barrels, Labor Day Festival ready to celebrate

The Hamtramck Labor Day Festival will be up and running this coming Labor Day weekend.

By Charles Sercombe
Hamtramck’s party of the year is back.
After taking last year off because of the Covid pandemic, the Hamtramck Labor Day Festival is ready to host the city’s largest outdoor gathering for a long weekend of grilled sausages, cold beer, cool bands, and carnival rides for the kids.
This year the festival runs from Sept. 4-6.
What’s not returning, though, is the Polish Day Parade. In fact, it’s never coming back to Hamtramck at all.
Parade organizers told The Review the parade will take place in Warren next year, but no date has been set.
Could this allow the Monday “canoe” races to go on longer (and wetter), now that the parade won’t happen on that day?
The festival’s return wasn’t an easy decision, organizers say. For the past few months, it has been uncertain when the state would allow public gatherings to return.
It was just a few weeks ago that the governor lifted all restrictions on outdoor gatherings.
Then there was talk of scaling down the event – of doing this or that — but when it came down to it, the decision was to bring it all back home.
Also making a return – maybe – is Big Time Wrestling.
This will be the 41st year for the festival – which was started by former Mayor Robert Kozaren in 1980, in an effort to boost morale in the city.
Residents and city officials were still reeling from the news that the city’s number one taxpayer, the Dodge Main plant, was suddenly closing.
Little did Kozaren know just how much the festival would come to mean to the city.
The festival has been run by volunteers. If you’d like to help out – and extra hands are always needed – go to the Hamtramck Labor Day Facebook page.
See you at the beer tent.
Posted July 2, 2021