That summation by Casandra Matej, president and CEO of Visit San Antonio, describes what’s taking place not only in San Antonio this year, but also in (at least) two other cities within the NTA community. New Orleans, like San Antonio, is celebrating its tricentennial anniversary, and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, has 350 candles on its cake.
“I can’t tell you how proud we are to be celebrating the 350th anniversary of Sault Ste. Marie as the oldest permanent settlement in Michigan and one of the oldest communities in the interior of the United States,” says Fred Huffman, group tour coordinator of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula Travel & Recreation Association. “There’s a full slate of activities scheduled throughout the year.”
July is prime time for the city’s celebrations, beginning with a Fourth of July parade and fireworks show and concluding with Rendezvous in the Sault, when re-enactors will set up displays and camps that depict military and civilian life from 1668 to 1840. The event is set for July 28–29.
In between is the 350th Anniversary Festival, a series of events and activities focused on the region’s history, culture, food and military heritage. The downtown festival will take place July 21–27.
Sault Ste. Marie is at the nexus of two Great Lakes—Huron and Superior—and the Soo Locks, which connect the two lakes, have long been one of the world’s busiest waterway traffic systems.
“Most groups visiting Sault Ste. Marie take a ride with Soo Locks Boat Tours, or they watch the freighters pass through the locks from the observation decks in Canal Park,” Huffman says. “I really enjoy the dinner cruise, which takes you through both the American and Canadian lock systems.”
The region’s rich heritage extends beyond the locks. “A lot of groups do a hub-and-spoke day trip to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point, which features the bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald, says Huffman. “They’ll also visit the Upper Tahquamenon Falls, which is the second-largest waterfall east of the Mississippi River and is on the river where Hiawatha launched a canoe to start his epic journey.”
Celebrating a city’s major anniversary is itself an epic journey, according to Matej. “In San Antonio, our tricentennial year is a community effort with every neighborhood, organization and company playing a role in the celebration.”
The yearlong salute, which had a preview kickoff during Travel Exchange, is projected to have a $120 million economic impact on the local economy, attract more than a quarter-million new visitors to the city and spur business development.
“With incredible investments in our city’s museums and cultural institutions, awesome new rides at our family-friendly theme parks, and hundreds of events celebrating cuisine and culture throughout the year, it’s a great time to visit San Antonio,” says Matej.
The pinnacle of the citywide celebration will be Commemorative Week, May 1–6. Each day carries a specific theme, including history and education, arts, the founding fathers and mothers, the city’s five missions, and its past and current military heritage.
Events that follow include the Texas Folklife Festival, June 8–10, celebrating ethnic food, music, dance and crafts; the San Antonio Beer Festival (Oct. 20), featuring local and international beers from more than 150 breweries; and the Ford Holiday River Parade (Nov. 23), a nighttime procession of floats that kicks off the River Walk’s display of holiday lights.
New Orleans is another celebratory city that is turning on the lights for its 300th anniversary in 2018. Luna Fete, running the entire month of December, will feature an unusual art installation and a festival of lights that will use the city’s iconic architecture as the canvas for a large-scale video projection. It’s one of many ways the Crescent City will commemorate its 1718 founding.
“New Orleans is rolling out the red carpet and creating many special experiences around its past,” says Thu Tran, of the New Orleans CVB. “We have some great tricentennial events groups can plan visits around.”
In conjunction with the anniversary, 45 landmarks across the city will highlight specific bits of history through a QR code reader app. At landmarks in the French Quarter, Mid City, Uptown and Downtown, visitors can scan the code to pull up a short video that details the site’s history.
April 19 through 25 is NOLA Navy Week, when ships from the U.S., Canada and around the globe will be in New Orleans for a week-long festival, which includes free ship tours and a cook-off between the ships. During the first part of Navy Week, New Orleans will host a flotilla of tall ships near NTA-member Audubon Aquarium.
Through the end of June, visitors can catch The Church in the Crescent: Three Hundred Years of Catholicism in New Orleans. The exhibit at Old Ursuline Convent Museum shares the story of the St. Louis Cathedral from its beginnings as a small wooden church to its present-day iconic edifice. Photographs, portraits, letters and incredibly preserved artifacts will allow guests to explore the rich history of the Catholic Church’s three centuries in New Orleans.
And for three months, beginning Oct. 26, the New Orleans Museum of Art will present The Orléans Collection, an exhibition of works of art from the magnificent collection of the city’s namesake, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (1689–1723).
For more information on these cities’ 2018 celebrations, contact Huffman (Sault Ste. Marie), Francisco Gallegos (San Antonio) and Tran (New Orleans).
Top photo: Soo Locks Boat Tours and Sunset Dinner Cruise
Photo by Upper Peninsula Travel & Recreation Association
