May Light, Muddy Boots, and a Busy Peninsula

A calm look at what’s coming up around Leelanau, Old Mission, and the lakeshore over the next week.

The screen door doesn’t quite close clean this time of year — it catches, then gives, with that soft clap you hear all over the Peninsula in May. The air’s still cool enough for a jacket at first light, but by afternoon it’s sleeves rolled up and muddy boots lined along the porch. You can photograph it easy: last year’s sand still tucked in the doormat grooves, a row of tulip leaves bending in the breeze, and a thin ribbon of sunlight sliding across a kitchen table where somebody’s folded a paper program in half and set it under their coffee mug.

Looking ahead from May 10, 2026, the next couple of weekends carry that familiar mix of art, readings, and early-season gatherings. On Friday, May 15, there’s a Vineyard Walk at Boathouse Vineyards Winery, Lake Leelanau — the kind of afternoon that fits May: gravel underfoot, vines still waking up, and a little wind in the treetops. That same Friday, May 15, Chateau Grand Traverse, Old Mission Peninsula has live music listed as Barley Priest Duo, a good excuse to notice how the bay looks when clouds keep moving and the light changes every few minutes.

Saturday, May 16 brings a music night in Leland at the Leelanau Community Cultural Center at the Old Art Building with Jon Muq. If you’ve been in that room, you know the sound of chairs shifting on the floor and the hush that settles in right before the first note. Meanwhile, Sunday, May 17 shows up on the community radar as an early-evening gathering at Aurora Cellars, Lake Leelanau — one of those events you hear about because someone pauses at a poster, reads it twice, then nods like, “Yep, that’s next week.”

Midweek, it’s the arts and words taking their turn. On Thursday, May 21, Interlochen Arts Academy hosts a Creative Writing Festival Reading — a late-afternoon moment that feels right for this season: windows cracked just a bit, pages turning, and that quiet concentration you can almost hear. And by May 20–22, the Interlochen Arts Academy Festival is in motion too, the sort of thing that changes the feel of the driveways and parking lots around campus — more footsteps, more cases being carried, more small conversations in the hallway before people find their seats.

Then the following weekend leans hard into the outdoors — if May behaves. Saturday, May 23 is a big one across our area: the Bayshore Marathon, Half Marathon, 10K, and Kids Fun Run runs along Old Mission Peninsula and finishes in town at Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City. Early that same day, Leland’s harbor side starts filling up for the 2026 Leland Wine and Food Festival at the Leland Township Harbor. And from May 23 through May 28, the Old Art Building, Leland hosts 14th Annual Leland Air 2026 — paint easels, quick sketches, and that particular sound of spring: wind tapping a sign against a post while folks wander in and out, pausing to look a little closer.

Event Info:
Leelanau Peninsula Chamber of Commerce Events
Leland Community Events Calendar
Old Art Building Events
Interlochen Concerts & Events
Bayshore Marathon (Traverse City Track Club)