EVENTS

Harvest Festival
Saturday, September 23, 2023 | 1-4pm

Free Family Fun!
Celebrate the turn of seasons with Apples, Animals & Hayrides through the Woods!

Autumn in Detroit would not be complete without a hayride through Palmer Park's colorful trails at People for Palmer Park's annual Harvest Festival on Saturday, September 23 from 1-4 pm. The festivities celebrate the Fall Equinox — the official first day of fall — and a bountiful harvest of the Palmer Park apple trees!

the area across from the Splash Park on Merrill Plaisance, adjacent to People for Palmer Park's Community Garden and Community House at 1121 Merrill Plaisance, will be filled with free family fun.  


Pony rides and petting zoo will return, along with pumpkin picking and decorating. Children can also make nature crowns in PFPP's big blue art tent, and participate in tug-of-war, relay races and other old-fashioned games. The Huron Clinton Metropark Mobile Learning Center will provide hands-on fun with furs, feathers, skulls, skeletons, artifacts, as well as snakes and other live animals.

Live entertainment will be ongoing: Mama Jahra's Griots will present "Tales of the Harvest" with stories, songs, drumming and dancing from Africa, the Caribbean and South America. The talented youth from the Dream Arts Company will perform excerpts from the "Little Princess the Musical," and Magic John will mesmerize all with his amazing magic tricks. 

The season's favorites will be served: apple tasting (with several different varieties of the Palmer Park apples), apple cider and donuts for the first 500, and freshly-roasted corn on the cob from Del Bene Produce in the Eastern Market. The Pink Flamingo to Go will also be at the event with more delicious food. 

More than a century ago, Senator Thomas Palmer and his wife Lizzie Merrill Palmer often would invite guests to enjoy their Log Cabin Farm, drink freshly pressed apple cider, and enjoy the harvest. Palmer donated the land in the late 1800s to the City of Detroit to serve as a park "for the good of all." In honor of the harvest and in tribute to the Palmer legacy, this event follows this tradition.

Palmer Park's HarvestFest is always a fun opportunity for all ages to learn about how our food is grown, the lives of farm animals, and nature in the park.

The event takes place next to Palmer Park's Splash Park and new playground, on Merrill Plaisance near Pontchartrain, between McNichols and Seven Mile Roads, west of Woodward Avenue. Parking is available at the Splash Park parking lot.
Sponsors: Presented by People for Palmer Park with the support of the City of Detroit Parks & Recreation Dept. Special thanks to Home Depot for a grant and volunteers that made it possible to build the PFPP Educational Garden.​

The event takes place near the Palmer Park Splash Park and playground, on Merrill Plaisance near Pontchartrain, between McNichols and Seven Mile Roads, west of Woodward Avenue. Parking is available at the Splash Park parking lot.
MORE EVENTS:


LOG CABIN DAY


WINTERFEST


HARVEST FESTIVAL


PALMER PARK ART FAIR