Michigan festival celebrates peace, love and hippies

LAPEER, MI – Hippies descended upon Lapeer dressed in rainbow bell bottom jeans and handmade crystal jewelry.

For the sixth year, Magickal Michigan Events organized the Peace, Love, and Hippies Festival Saturday, March 9 at the American Legion Post 16 building.

Small businesses and vendors filled two floors of the building.

“These are my people,” said Sheila Schaller, owner of Moon Kissed Crystals in Clarkston. She set up a vendor table at the festival for the third time.

Michigan live music artists played throughout the day with covers of classic 60′s and 70′s songs. The lineup featured Ron Muka, Sonic Honey, and Sunshine String Band.

The festival also featured Hippie Trivia, with a Beatles vinyl record for the winner, and a That 70′s Gameshow.

Kim Dotson, co-organizer of Magickal Michigan Events, said “It’s everything under the sun. Art to physic reading. Everything fits in the hippie energy.”

The festival began in 2018 and is planned twice a year, an indoor one in March and an outdoor event in the summer.

It began as a way for vendors, who primarily only have access to festivals and arts shows in the summer, to have a place to sell their products in the winter. “Let’s give them a day where they can go and do their craftmanship,” Dotson said.

The festival features a wide variety of small businesses.

Sassy Plants, run by Cat DeVlaminck, sells small plants that are potted in cute re-purposed items. Cindy Carter of CC’s Minis sells miniature dioramas of hippie bedrooms and fairies in bird cages. And Mary Maguire, a hypnotherapist and spiritual life coach from Ohio, runs a tarot, oracle, and angel card business.

Hand Cut Coins in Flushing, run by Gary Ambrose II, creates custom shapes and patterns out of coins to be used as jewelry. He has been perfecting his craft for 38 years.

These are only a handful of the dozens of vendors at the Peace, Love, and Hippies Festival.

“I think people just need a place to feel free,” said Justin Arnold, co-organizer with Magickal Michigan Events. “The artist in me just wants somewhere for people to express themselves. Come here, put on a flower crown, have fun, dance to music, plays games. That’s what this is really about.”

Magickal Michigan Events host a medley of events including another Peace, Love, and Hippie Festival March 23 in Houghton Lake. During the summer they have two more Peace, Love, and Hippie Festivals in Lapeer and Houghton Lake and in October, they host Witches Weekend.