Clickable, interactive, and easily integrated – Downtown Bay City calendar makes planning easier

On any given night, live music comes from Wenonah Park, the Third Street Waterfall Park, Uptown Bay City, and numerous bars and restaurants. Posters advertising festivals, races, and special events fill store windows. And every night, people walk around the streets, stopping to talk to each other or enjoy the daily special at a favorite dining spot.

“There’s something to do every day of the week,” says Marjo Jaroch, Executive Director of Downtown Bay City.

Keeping track of the details of all the events and deciding where to go can be daunting, but Downtown Bay City’s new interactive calendar should make it a little easier.

In addition to community concerts and festivals, many businesses in the area bring in live music and other acts to entertain patrons in the summer.To find the calendar, visit the Downtown Bay City website and click on the events tab. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the calendar. Click on each day and a list of that day’s events, with all the details, opens up at the bottom of the page. For more detail, click on an individual event. A second option opens up a Google calendar of events. Click on that and you’ll see an option to add the Downtown Bay City events calendar to your calendar.

Jaroch says the goal of each options is the same. “We wanted to make it simple,” Jaroch says.

With as many as a dozen activities on any given weekend, and three to five events on some weekdays, simplicity was important. Jaroch says the calendar makes a big difference.

“All year long we’re trying to have a more succinct calendar that has every event going on around town all the time,” she says. “We have over 600 events put in from May to October, for all kinds of activities, largely free. These are not just from the Downtown Management Board, but throughout the community.”

The events and activities include live music at several of the local restaurants, music and movies in Wenonah Park, yoga and wellness classes offered by various businesses, art activities, and activities for kids.

“There are significantly more programs than in the past,” says Jaroch, adding businesses have stepped up to sponsor community events. Businesses, clubs, and individuals donated money and time to make sure activities happen. As a result, new events are constantly being added to the calendar.

Along with new activities, Jaroch says there are some staples on the calendar. Open the calendar and you’ll find classics such as the Bay City Boat Lines tours of the Saginaw River. The historical tours are free and all of the trips are listed on the calendar.

“We’re still updating regularly,” she adds.

Having everything accessible on the Downtown Bay City website is new this year, as are some of the activities, Jaroch says.

“We have never had all of this on our Downtown pages before,” she says.
“People are coming together and creating this ambiance,” says Jaroch,. “It’s not just one group, it’s the whole community working together.”