Grand Marais hopes weekend festival brings crowds as wildfire smoke recedes

Grand Marais, near the tip of northeastern Minnesota's Arrowhead, is getting ready for the start of Thursday’s annual Fisherman's Picnic festival.

The event, which runs through Sunday, marks one of the first big celebrations since wildfires and smoke choked much of the North Shore the past few weeks, cutting back on tourists visiting the area.

Most businesses in the area saw a huge hit to their foot traffic from the smoke and are expecting to see a big return this weekend, Sarah Jorgenson-Hallberg, who owns Java Moose Cafe in downtown Grand Marais, told MPR News.

“We anticipate that most of our visitors will be back,” she said. “We're all being cautiously optimistic for those numbers.”

Before it became a weekend event, the event was a picnic for the area's commercial fishermen that dates back 97 years.

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