With the 99th National Cherry Festival now underway, event attendees will be looking to participate in many of its annual events again, including its celebratory parades.
The first of two parades set for the festival this year is the Consumers Energy Community Royale Parade on July 3 at 6:30 p.m. A heartwarming highlight of the cherry festival, the parade shines a spotlight on the Junior Royalty Program, where each participating elementary school and homeschool designs and builds a float inspired by this year’s theme, “Christmas in July.” The second parade, the DTE Energy Foundation Cherry Royale Parade, kicks off the final day of the festival on July 5 from 11:15 a.m. to 1 p.m., and will also feature beloved junior royal floats, creative specialty entries, as well as the first official appearance of the newly crowned 2025-2026 National Cherry Queen.
The history of the Junior Royalty Program goes back to 1948, the first year a junior royalty couple was chosen from each of the seven local elementary schools at the time. Now, over 25 schools participate in the youth program, where the dubbed prince and princesses become the festival’s littlest cherry ambassadors.
In addition to participating in festivities/events during and leading up to the festival, junior royalty and their families also build floats to represent their school during the community and Cherry Royale parades.
Mandy DePuy, National Cherry Festival marketing and communications manager, said both of her girls in the past have been part of the junior royalty program representing Glen Lake Community Schools. She said it was a really fun experience for her daughters at such a young age as they got to see another side of the festival — one that allowed them to be creative during the float build while also collaborating and learning alongside other youth from the area.
“They’re represented as royalty and they get to go to these events — they have their crown and sash — the princesses have their cherry dresses and the princes have their red cherry festival shirt, so they get to go and experience things just in a different fashion than they could as normal festival goers,” DePuy said. “It’s just really fun for them to be represented this way.”
Families have a stipend from the program to go toward the building of their floats, but participants and prospective schools are also responsible for fundraising anything else they may need to cover costs. Joe and Leah Mosher, parents of Margaret, who was selected as princess this year representing Glen Lake Community Schools, said while the float is sort of the capstone of the junior royal program, the work done by volunteers to make it happen highlights the unity of the community itself.
“We had a local farming family donate their haywagon over a month ago, so we’re basically taking a key piece of equipment away from them for six to eight weeks which is really generous of them… and we had seven different small local businesses that have given generously to sponsor the float and helped us pay for the supplies,” Joe said. “I think aside from the work of the float, it just shows what a special place we live in because people just step up and help out, no one has to do this stuff alone.”
The monthly events leading up to the festival for junior royals have been equally invaluable. Joe said one event Margaret attended taught her all about the cherry industry and the work it takes to harvest and process the fruit. Margaret said she’s enjoyed all the events she’s got to go to, as well as making new friends, learning about cherry farming, and is excited to be in the parade.
“I think that’s just a really cool thing for her to understand better given where she lives,” he said. “Also, at least one of the events was around community service and assembling reading bags to support early childhood literacy, so I think the idea of giving something back to the community was also a really important lesson for her. Then just meeting a bunch of other kids from northwestern Michigan from other schools — there was a sports night for playing soccer and basketball with a bunch of kids she didn’t know and it was just super fun to see all these kids get together and have a good time.”
Ashley Petroskey, mother of Griffin, who is prince this year alongside Margaret representing Glen Lake, said the community members who have helped sponsor the float, as well the volunteers running the junior royal program, have been amazing to work with thus far. Petroskey said she’s loved attending the cherry festival for many years, and that this will be Griffin’s first time witnessing and being part of a parade.
The specific Christmas theme their float is based on is “deck the halls,” and will recreate the boat that floats around Glen Lake at Christmas time with a Christmas tree inside it. The float just has some last finishing touches to complete, but it’s almost ready for the public to see at the parade. Griffin said he is super excited to help finish building the float and to see everyone’s hard work pay off.
“The community that has helped sponsor this is what makes it happen, and that’s one of the really awesome things about where we live… It’s a busy time and it’s crazy and wild, but it’s definitely been memory-making,” Petroskey said. “Ever since our kids were little, we’ve taken them (to the cherry festival) for at least one day every year.”
There will also be another royal court in attendance at the parades via another float. The Polka Festival float from Cedar will showcase second graders represented from various Leelanau County schools dressed in traditional Polish outfits.
Tiffany Zionskowski, a St. Mary School parent, had her daughter, Claire, selected to ride on the Polka Fest float in last year’s National Cherry Festival parade. The Polka Fest float and its royal court is typically showcased at the Polka Fest in August, so those at the cherry festival also get a sneak peak of those involved with that event, too.
“Claire and her friend, Mitchell, who is also from St. Mary’s school, represented St. Mary’s school on the Polka fest float — they were dressed in little Polish prince and princesses (outfits) and had a wonderful time,” Zionskowski said. “They got to see a lot of their friends and family in the crowd… they got to dance (in their seats), and they had Polka fest music playing all the way through the parade. My husband and I walked with them on the parade route and they did the chicken dance. So we got some people up dancing — it was a great experience and very fun.”
