Cedar Springs: the 'Red Flannel Town'

Cedar Springs calls itself the Red Flannel Town and the Red Flannel Capital of the World. The festival’s own history is candid about that second title: these “capital” labels are self-proclaimed civic nicknames, not official rankings. In Cedar Springs, though, the nickname has a real local story behind it.

The festival traces that story to the hard winter of 1936. A feature writer for the New York Sun could not find old-fashioned red flannel underwear and declared it obsolete. Nina Babcock and Grace Hamilton, the women who edited the Cedar Springs Clipper, answered that local merchants still had it. The Associated Press picked up their reply, and orders began arriving from around the country.

The first Red Flannel Day followed on November 11, 1939. It included a parade, a queen, a lumberjack supper, and Keystone Kops who collected pretend bail from people not wearing red. The festival history says the event paused during the World War II years and then returned. Cedar Springs’ city master plan still treats the festival as a defining annual tradition. For this year’s dates and events, use the festival’s current schedule rather than an old anniversary count.