By Mike Kruzman / news@whmi.com


Pending pandemic rules, the City of Brighton is ready to bring residents back downtown for a year full of new and returning events.

During Thursday’s City Council meeting, officials approved civic applications for nearly 20 events that will remind people more of what downtown life was like in 2019 and earlier, as opposed to last year. All events are subject to federal, state, and local guidelines.

First on the list is the return of the Farmer’s Market, Saturdays from May 2nd through Halloween. If orders and logistics allow, there could be up to four parades downtown- one each for Memorial Day, the 4th of July, Veterans Day, and the high school’s homecoming. Several popular 5K runs and walks were also approved. Patty Thomas is the City’s Assistant to the DPS Director. She highlighted a pair of events, with one being the new Bark in Park, held by Bountiful Harvest. That event, like several others, will see the closure of Main Street. Bark in the Park will feature food, a Bloody Mary bar, a dog parade, and canine contests at the AMP.

The other “new” event is Weekends on West, which has run previously, but not for a few years. That event, hosted by The Pound, will run Friday afternoons and Saturdays. It will see the closure of West Street so they can serve food and alcohol with live music playing. Some members of City Council were hesitant considering the history of the establishment and the lack of participation from Ginopolis, which shares West Street, but the applications were all unanimously accepted.

Unfortunately, Thomas announced one event is already being canceled - The Brighton Optimist Club’s Fishing Derby.

Missing from the list were multi-day events including the Taste of Brighton, Jazz Fest, and the Wine Art Music Festival. Thomas said those are all ready to be submitted but are being held back temporarily to see what is happening with Social District consideration.

Mayor Pro-Tem Susan Gardner predicts that “folks are going to be thrilled” for any of these events they can get going.