A 10-Day Cheeseburger Festival Takes Over This Tiny Michigan Town

Caseville — It’s the biggest week of the year for Michigan’s Thumb: Cheeseburger Festival.

Of all the wacky summer festivals that go on in this state—Wayne County’s Elvis Festival, the Gerber Baby Food Festival in Fremont, the Yale Bologna Festival—by far the biggest and most beloved of them all is in Huron County's pièce de résistance: Caseville.

That’s right. Every August, the Thumb’s crown jewel puts on a 10-day Jimmy Buffett-inspired celebration that turns this normally quiet lakeside town into one crazy beach party.

You’ve never seen Caseville like this. In a town of 700 residents or so, tens of thousands of people have packed downtown this week for 10 straight days of live music, parties, contests and, of course, lots and lots of cheeseburgers.

For many younger people who grew up around Caseville, the Cheeseburger Festival is a summer tradition they've been coming to their entire lives. But it's far from just a local affair. Every year, the festival brings in people from all over Michigan and plenty of out-of-staters as well.

Last year, around 50,000 people reportedly came into Caseville for just the midweek parade alone. That’s roughly 70 times the town’s entire population arriving in a single day.

The festival, officially named “Cheeseburger in Caseville,” started back in 1999 when Caseville locals Arlene Nance and Lyn Bezemek came up with the idea for an end-of-summer festival. The entire thing was inspired by Jimmy Buffett, tropical paradise, and, obviously, his famous song "Cheeseburger in Paradise." The idea was that, for one week only, Caseville would trade its normal small-town charm for Hawaiian shirts, flamingos and burger patties.

The first one lasted just three days and brought around 5,000 people to town. While that’s already an impressive turnout for a town this size, it was nothing compared to how big the festival has gotten now.

Over the nearly 30 years since, those three days have grown into 10, the crowds have grown from a few thousand to tens of thousands, and today, Cheeseburger in Caseville is among the biggest and best summer traditions anywhere in Michigan.

This year’s festival runs from Aug. 14 through Aug. 23. Here’s what’s been going on so far and what you can expect to see during the final four days:

First, there's live music every single day. They obviously couldn’t throw a Jimmy Buffett-inspired festival without some Jimmy Buffett cover bands, and trop rock is definitely the soundtrack for this event. But if you’re a psychopath and don’t like Jimmy Buffett for some reason, don’t worry, there’s other music too. At pretty much any given time during the festival, you can find a local artist or beloved cover band playing everything from classic rock and steel drums to any other genre that’ll fit the vibe.

The fashion here is also a whole event in itself.

Hawaiian shirts are the unofficial uniform around here, and I genuinely didn't think this many cheeseburger hats existed in the world. This festival must be single-handedly keeping the entire cheeseburger-hat-manufacturing industry in business. Beyond that, you can also expect to see grass skirts, leis, flamingos, parrots, tropical prints, and basically anything else you could reasonably wear to look like you're a tourist in Key West.

Food is obviously also a huge part of the week. You can find everything from a classic cheeseburger to some pretty insane burger-centered creations, with local restaurants and vendors posted up all over downtown. And these people take their burgers very seriously. I’m not kidding.

Last year’s winning burger from Beachy’s should give you some idea of the kinds of burgers we’re talking about. It came topped with pesto cream cheese, Muenster cheese, crumbled pepperoni, four-cheese ravioli, and homemade hot honey.

Festival organizers estimated close to 200,000 cheeseburgers were sold at last year’s festival alone. At an average of around $10 each, that works out to roughly $2 million worth of cheeseburgers moving through this tiny community in just 10 days.

With that many burgers around, it only makes sense that there are a few burger-related competitions too. There’s a Best Cheeseburger Contest, of course, which crowns the best burger in town, but there’s also a cheeseburger-eating contest and even a best-dressed cheeseburger contest!

There are non-burger-related contests too, including sandcastle building, volleyball tournaments, and even a cardboard boat race!

Beyond that, there’s always a party happening down on the beach. Caseville sits right on the shores of Lake Huron, and this week, the town makes pretty good use of it. Throughout the festival, you’ll see people kayaking, paddleboarding, playing volleyball, doing yoga, and just hanging out along the water.

The festival does have some main events throughout the week that people get especially excited about. There’s the Cheeseburger 5K, which kicks off Saturday morning during the first weekend, and the annual classic car show, which typically happens toward the very end of the festival on the second Saturday or Sunday night. But by far the biggest event of the entire week is the midweek Parade of Tropical Fools.

On Wednesday night, Main Street completely shuts down for this massive parade. People start claiming their spots hours in advance, and tens of thousands pour into Caseville for this night alone.

The parade goes for about a mile and has pretty much everything you’d expect: massive cheeseburger floats, flamingos, music, beads, and candy flying into the crowd, Hawaiian shirts for days and just about as much fun as you can fit onto one street.

If you missed the parade but any of this sounds like your idea of fun, you’re in luck, because there are four more days of cheeseburgers in paradise still to come!

The festival runs through Sunday, Aug. 23, and some highlights for this weekend include the Classic Car Show on Saturday, more live music from Jimmy Buffett tribute bands, and the Great Duck Race on Sunday.

So throw on your Hawaiian shirt, get a hankering for some cheeseburgers, and make your way to the Thumb.

And finally, give thanks to Jimmy Buffett for singing about cheeseburgers in paradise and giving this quiet Michigan town something to celebrate.