One of the region’s most unique and anticipated festivals returns to Northport tomorrow (Saturday), and Sandy Dhuyvetter says you’ll want to be there at 1:45pm.

“We’ve got some real surprises, and at 1:45 we’ve got a huge surprise,” says Dhuyvetter, president of the always fascinating Leelanau UnCaged Fesitval. “Just you wait.”

The one-day festival kicks off at 11am in Northport, where the streets will be closed for the event. In addition to multiple musical acts on several stages, there will be food, poetry, more than 50 art vendors, a kids’ section and more.  

“It’s a love fest. That’s what this is, really. An old-fashioned love fest,” Dhuyvetter says. “It’s pure and beautiful.”

The name comes from festival founder Andy Thomas’ deep admiration of John Cage, an experimental composer and musician active in the mid-20th century. To describe Cage as unconventional would be an understatement, as Cage was widely recognized as pushing the boundaries of a wide variety of musical disciplines and pioneering others.

“Cage held that an artist can work as freely with sound as with paint. He changed what it meant to be a composer, and every kid manipulating music on a laptop is in his debt,” The New Yorker once wrote.

In 2013, Thomas and others held the first version of the festival in late September, a date chosen to allow locals to celebrate and breathe a sigh of relief once the horde of tourists had retreated.

“They wanted it to be about the people in the county and the area who’d worked so hard during the summer to take care of tourists to come together and be with their friends, and finally say, we did it and let’s just exhale together,” Dhuyvetter says.

From planning to execution to cleanup, Leelanau UnCaged is powered completely by volunteers. Dhuyvetter encourages visitors to thank a volunteer if they see one.

“We always honor the sponsors. They give whatever money, and we really highlight them. But how can you do it without all these volunteers that give pretty much every waking hour,” Dhuyvetter says. “They are the humble giants. They are my heroes. They ask for nothing, and they keep giving.”

The festival kicks of with a water blessing down at the marina at 11am, complete with tribal songs and flowers to toss into the bay.

“Last year we were in conflict with the pow-wow, and we didn’t have any native people with us. So we had a water blessing, and it was good, but this year is going to be very special…with that presence from the native world,” Dhuyvetter says. “The native way is always about gratitude and giving back, and that’s what this is. And it’s a great way to start. Look at the land and water and say, ‘Ah, look what we have, let’s take a moment and just feel that.’ And as soon as we’re done, the samba drummers (start).”

The festival took two years off for COVID in 2020 and 2021. Dhuyvetter expects this year’s edition to be true-to-form after a reduced artist and musician load last year as everyone eased back into things.

“It’s going to be a real rock and roll banger,” she said.

The Bay Area Transportation Authority (BATA) has a free shuttle running throughout the day that will run between Traverse City and Northport, with stops at the Suttons Bay Library and Leelanau Sands Casino.