A sampling of Michigan festivals & events for the month of August. As usual, there's no way we'll get them all, so please add links and information about those we've missed (or reviews of ones we have here) in the comments below.

July 27 - August 5

Grand Haven Coast Guard Festival - Grand Haven
The Grand Haven Coast Guard Festival takes pride in honoring the men and women of the United States Coast Guard and is thrilled to host an exciting array of fun filled family activities and events. Check out the community picnic, the huge arts & crafts show in Central Park, the midway, water ski show, sporting events, and ship tours.

July 31 - August 5

Traverse City Film Festival - Traverse City

The Traverse City Film Festival is committed to showing "Just Great Movies" and helping to save one of America's few indigenous art forms — the cinema. The Traverse City Film Festival presents the best of independent, foreign, and documentary films. It also presents classic movies free of charge on a giant, inflatable outdoor screen overlooking Grand Traverse Bay in the Open Space Park at dusk.

August 2-5

Sleeping Bear Dunegrass & Blues Festival - Empire

Amazing music festival featuring nationally known acts including Yonder Mountain String Band, Dark Star Orchestra, Railroad Earth, David Grisman Quintet and Peter Rowan Crucial Reggae along with Michigan favorites like Larry McCray, Greensky Bluegrass, Shout Sister Shout, Steppin' in It, The Biddies, Seth Bernard & Daisy May and many more.

August 2-5

Woodtick Music Festival - between Hermansville and Powers

The Woodtick Music Festival is a home-grown, Upper Peninsula style shindig featuring a variety of regional and not so regional bands who all have one thing in common...they're damn good!

August 3-4

Lansing Jazz Fest - Lansing

A two-day free music festival that brings national, regional, and local acts to an audience of roughly 15,000 people
Each artist at the festival is asked to play an original composition, something that hasn't been played at any other festival.

August 7-10

Michigan Womyn's Music Festival - Walhalla

The Womyn's Music Fest has scores of workshops, parties and dances planned for the week on our 650 beautiful acres of remote Michigan woodland. You can hike into the interior of the land for a solitary campsite far from the action, or settle into a fireside tent city with neighbors from around the globe

August 9-12

National Blueberry Festival - South Haven

The National Blueberry Festival celebrates the blueberry industry in and around South Haven. Featuring fish boil, blueberries, pancake breakfasts, chicken dinner, arts & crafts, live entertainment, pie eating contest, parade, 5k walk/run and more.

August 10-12

Great Lakes Folk Festival - East Lansing

unique fusion of arts fair, music festival, county fair, multi-ethnic festival, hands-on activity workshops and celebration of cultural heritage
The festival encourages cross-cultural understanding of our diverse society through the presentation of musicians, dancers, cooks, storytellers and craftspeople whose traditions are rooted in their communities.

August 17-19

African World Festival - Detroit

Musicians from all over the world perform African and African-influenced music. Local and national acts entertain crowds with a variety of musical genres including Blues, Gospel, Jazz, and Soul to name a few. Dancers adorned in traditional clothing present electrifying demonstrations, alongside drummers, and stilt-walkers. The Annual Greek Step-Show features the intricate, yet precise drill movements by members of the eight traditional Black fraternities and sororities. Satisfy your appetite at the Taste of the Diaspora, with authentic African cuisine, organic foods, and all of your summertime favorites. Visit the Vendor Market Place, for goods from all continents of the world. The African Family Village features activities for children and young adults.

August 18 - September 30

Michigan Renaissance Festival - Holly (Open Weekends and Labor Day)

Inside the turreted gates of Hollygrove you are free to roam the festive marketplace featuring friendly village merchants lining every path. In addition to the fantastic selection of handcrafted wares, Hollygroave visitors may also partake in games of skill or enjoy non-stop entertainment where belly dancers, sword swallowers, musicians, comedians, and sword fighters provide merriment for all ages. The Festival is best known for its awe-inspiring full-contact armored jousting tournaments where gallant knights defend their honor until the last man is standing.

August 25-26

Cascades Civil War Muster - Jackson

The Cascades Civil War Muster is the longest-running, biggest Civil War Muster and Reenactment in Michigan, if not the Midwest. Make sure to check out Sutler's Row a 1860's shopping area. Watch the civilian demonstrations, tour the Union and Confederate Camps, enjoy live music and great food. Don't miss the military ball.

August 31 - September 3

Detroit International Jazz Festival - Detroit

For 28 years, the Detroit International Jazz Festival has attracted visitors and locals to an end of summer ritual on Labor Day Weekend that celebrates one of America's most important art forms. The festival boasts six stages and one hundred acts over four days in a city well known for its musical legacy.