Howell: home of the Melon Festival and a sky full of hot-air balloons

For a small county seat, Howell throws two outsized parties each year. The older one is the Howell Melon Festival, held downtown since the early 1960s. It celebrates the Howell melon — a cantaloupe the area has long been famous for growing — with melon treats, a parade, a carnival, and live music, all set around the historic Livingston County Courthouse. It draws tens of thousands of people over a mid-August weekend.

The other is the Michigan Challenge Balloonfest, which started in 1985 as a state hot-air-ballooning championship — six balloons and some lawn chairs — and has grown into one of the biggest events of its kind in Michigan, drawing crowds well over 100,000 across the last weekend of June. Dozens of balloons launch from the fields at Howell High School, and the Saturday-evening “Balloon Glow,” when the tethered balloons light up at dusk, is the fan favorite. (Fittingly, nearby Island Lake is the only state park in Michigan with a hot-air-balloon launch port.)

You can find the Howell Melon Festival at howellmelonfestival.com and the Michigan Challenge Balloonfest at michiganchallenge.com.