If you only have time for one small-town festival this summer and you want it to be filled with enough silliness to make you forget all the serious stuff going on in your life, consider the Annual "Cheeseburger in Caseville"  Festival. It is too big for a weekend and runs every year in August. As you reach the city limits, you’ll be greeted by more pink flamingos than flock anywhere else north of Miami as the small beach town of Caseville morphs into Key North. Every restaurant works to outdo the next in creating the best Cheeseburger in town and there is even a Cheeseburger Eating Contest. The music and the fun take on a distinctive Margaritaville flavor.  

Buttons gain you access to Amphitheater entertainment each night. A sampling includes: The Boat Drunks Buffett Tribute and Parrots of the Caribbean, a Buffett Tribute. Air Margaritaville is the fitting closing act. The entertainment isn’t limited to the weekends, and every day and night is filled with events and entertainment for all ages. You can shop, golf, swim, and fish if you are looking for more traditional beach activities. Caseville has some of the best sand beaches in Michigan. Your children can enter limbo contests and treasure hunts.    

Wondering about the best hotels to stay at in Caseville? Click here for rates.

Whatever else you do, don’t miss the Parade of Tropical Fools which steps off at 6:00 on Main Street.  Every organization and business within a hundred mile radius decorates a pick-up, flatbed truck, wagon, bus, scooter, car, or golf cart to enter the two hour parade. Those who can’t come up with a motorized vehicle walk the parade route throwing out candy and necklaces to the thousands of spectators that line the street. Crowds have been estimated at fifty thousand!    

While you can’t leave without eating a cheeseburger and enjoying a margarita, you can also indulge in elephant ears, cotton candy, kettle corn funnel cakes and maybe this year the threatened, soon-to-be-famous, Cheese Dogs.     

Caseville has plenty of places to camp or rent a room (my personal favorite is the Lodge at Oak Pointe), although many visitors make it a day trip. For additional information call 989-856-3818 or check out  www.casevillechamber.com or https://www.cheeseburgerincasevillefest.com for a complete listing of this year’s fun. The experience is guaranteed to make you take yourself a bit less seriously – at least while you are there.

Julie Albrecht Royce, Michigan Editor, is the author of Traveling Michigan's Sunset Coast and Traveling Michigan's Thumb, both published by Thunder Bay Press. 

All photographs provided by Cheeseburger in Caseville Festival.