• Festival
• Festival Schedule
• Festival Camping
• Event Calendar
• Other traditional music and dance events
• Hiawatha news
• Directions
• Membership Info
• Logo Contest
• For Performers
• Artists & Crafters
• Food Concessions
• Festival Program Advertising
• Photo Album
• Links
• Scholarship to Augusta

Festival Camping

You must purchase a weekend Festival ticket in order to camp.
You must have an official Festival camping tag attached to each camping unit or structure (tent, RV, screen tent, hanging tarp, etc.).
Campers will be registered to specific areas in the Park, identified as A through E. Please see map below. Your camping tag will indicate the area where each camping unit is allowed. (Areas F and G are reserved for Music Co-op use only.) Each camping tag is good for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights of the Festival weekend. Owners of untagged camping units discovered during the Festival will have a choice of removing the unit or buying an "emergency" tag for $20.
Only weekend ticket holders over age 18 may register camping units. We have the right to ask for proof of age. Parents or adult guardians must register camping units occupied by minors, and these minors must camp in the same area as their guardians. Parents or guardians will be held responsible for the actions of minors under their supervision.
Indicate three camping-area choices on your ticket order. We sell tags first-come, first-served. We try to provide the first-choice area, but we can’t always do so.
Please don’t write the same area in all three blanks. That won’t help if we’re out of your first choice.
The Health Department permit allows us only 966 tags, and we need some for performers, vendors, key volunteers, etc. Please do not buy a camp tag if you do not plan to camp, do not order more tags than you need, and understand that we may run out of tags before advance ticket sales end. Earlier ticket orders have a better chance of getting tags in their first-choice area.
You will receive your camping tag(s) with your tickets. You must bring the camping tags to the Festival to camp.
Section B is for Quiet Camping. Campers in this area will maintain a reasonable silence after 10 p.m. Those who won’t do so may be asked to leave the area.
Drumming during non-daylight hours is permitted only in Area D. No drumming allowed in the park after 1 a.m. local time.
TEENS MUST BE SUPERVISED. We welcome teens and have many activities for them. But unsupervised teens can make bad choices. Hiawatha will enforce a midnight curfew for Festival-goers under age 18. Disruptive teens and their guardians will be removed from the Festival grounds. Under-age drinkers and anyone of any age engaged in illegal activities can and probably will be arrested by the Marquette Police, who are particularly vigilant about "minors in possession."
HIAWATHA BEGINS AT NOON ON FRIDAY. Campers who arrive Friday may not enter the Park until noon. Campers in the Park from Thursday night control their campsites until that time. They control their fire rings and any hookups during the Festival.
Campsites MAY still be available for the nights preceding the Festival. To learn about reservations for those nights, please call the Marquette Parks and Recreation Office at 906-228-0460.
ABSOLUTELY NO PETS ALLOWED. Board facilities here are limited. Please provide for your pet before you leave home.
CAMPING UNITS MUST BE AT LEAST FOUR FEET APART. Health Department employees are likely to appear with rulers during the weekend, as will our Security volunteers, hoping to stay one step ahead of the former. Please take this rule seriously.
FIRES IN REGULAR PARK FIRE RINGS ONLY. No free-standing fireplaces, fire pits or fire rings from outside the Park. Keep tents, and other flammable items at least 10 feet from your fire. Please do not move the Park’s fire rings. Please do not bring firewood from outside the Marquette area, to help us avoid invasive, non-native species.
PLEASE PUT PICNIC TABLES BACK when you break camp. The City charges Hiawatha a bunch of money if you don’t.
OFF-SITE PARKING AND PARKING PASSES
A free shuttle bus will run to and from off-site parking throughout the weekend. Please help reduce traffic in the Park and save space for camping. If you do not need your vehicle on site, please park in the free off-site parking and use the free shuttle. We can issue you a temporary parking pass to unload your camping gear.
To park your vehicle in Tourist Park during the Festival, you must buy and display a current Festival parking pass.
Parking passes are available to registered weekend campers only.
Exception: People whose vehicles have official handicap license plates or hang tags, and people whose membership level entitles them to Patron Parking may park in the Festival grounds without camping. Handicap parking passes are free. Patron Parking comes with annual memberships of $100 or more. Parking Passes are limited and available first-come, first-served.
Purchase your parking pass when you order your weekend tickets and register your camping unit(s).
You must bring your parking pass to the Festival to park on the Festival site.
CAMPING TAG OR PARKING PASS? You should only have to buy one type of tag per vehicle in the campground. If you park the vehicle on your campsite as a camping unit and leave it in place all weekend, buy a $15 camping tag for it. If you want to drive your vehicle in and out of the park during the weekend, buy a $50 parking pass for it.