Romeo's Peach Festival returns each Labor Day weekend

Romeo’s Peach Festival is an old Labor Day weekend tradition, but its history is not one unbroken run. The festival began in 1931 as a celebration of the orchards around northern Macomb County. Its organizers and the Romeo Community Archives both describe it as Michigan’s second-oldest festival. That is their local claim; the sources do not point to an independent statewide festival registry that settles the ranking.

The archive also fills in the part a short slogan can miss. Romeo did not hold the festival from 1942 through 1945 during World War II. Its future was uncertain again in 1951, when the Romeo Lions Club stepped in to keep it going. The 2020 festival was canceled too. So “since 1931” means that is when the tradition began, not that a festival happened every single year.

The peach-country connection is older still. Westview Orchards in Washington Township says the same family has operated the farm since 1813. Farms like it gave the festival its reason for being and still tie Romeo to the surrounding township.

Today the weekend brings separately organized events together under the Peach Festival name. The exact mix and timing can change from year to year, so the official festival site is the useful last stop before you go. The lasting part is simpler: each return gives Romeo and its orchard country another long weekend together.