Mark your calendars now for August 8, 9. The 2025 Dexter Summer Festival, presented by Dexter Orthodontics returns. The Dexter Area Chamber of Commerce is excited to enter our second year hosting the Summer Festival. This year’s event will be bigger than ever with three venues, all with live entertainment, the return of the parade and fireworks, and much more.
Monument Park Main Stage, sponsored by Chelsea State Bank, will feature 60 vendors, live musicians in the gazebo at 12:00, 4:00, and 8:00p, plus the social tent.
The Action Zone, sponsored by SBK Orthodontics, is located at the Broad Street plaza this year. The new fire house construction has eliminated North Mill Creek Park as a venue so the Broad Street Plaza will be the location of “all things kids”. Bounce houses, games, kid entrepreneurs, and live entertainment will keep families entertained throughout the day. The Kids Zone is open from 10-6 each day.
Our new area this year will be located down old Broad Street. The Social District, (the area defined by the city, where you can stroll with a beverage) hosted by Pearl Planning, will feature vendors, games of skill for tweens, teens and up, corn hole tournament, the VIP tent, and stage with live entertainment. Bands will perform at 2:00 and 6:00p each day. The VIP tent will have reserved seating for sponsors and VIPs providing cold beverages and snacks. Daily VIP passes will be available for purchase.
The parade, sponsored by Dermatology Specialists of Dexter and Ann Arbor, returns! At 10:00 on Saturday morning, the parade begins. The Summer Festival Parade is meant to be fun and completely different from our other traditional parades. The parade will be lead by Grand Marshals Dexter’s own Madison Rally and Brian Welch from W4 Country. Following them will be kids. That’s right, this is the kids opportunity to get start the parade. There will be a free bike (trike, skate board, scooter, wagons-let your imagination go crazy-any non-motorized kid mover) decoration station in the Action Zone in front of Destination Cyclery all day Friday. Kids with or without their folks help can trick out their ride and then show it off in the parade.
Oh, that’s not all. After the kids, the our tee shirt design winner, Tiffany Dobson, will be tossing free summer festival tees to the crowd. Following her is everyone else. If you, your business, family, event, organization, etc. would like to participate, we ask that you do something memorable and fun. Instead of driving your plumbing van down the street, maybe have it driven by a dinosaur or led by a plunger drill team. Can we get a group of folks with those awesome blow up Halloween costumes dancing down Main Street? Think outside the usual parade box. Think different. Think fun. Think memorable. Need ideas? We have millions. Once in a lifetime proposal? We have ideas. Don’t hesitate to reach out. If you’d like to be included, fill out the form on the Chamber website.
Thanks to our generous partners at Dexter Orthodontics, the fireworks are back! The fireworks are scheduled for 9:30 Friday evening.
There will also be a close up, roaming magician, chalk artists, and much more. Parking will be eased by the generous sponsorship of The Pelham, provided by WAVE. They will run a 20 minute loop stopping at four pick up and drop off locations.
It’s impossible to list everything here so for more information or to volunteer, go to
If you have questions or comments or would like to volunteer, reach out to [email protected].
See you in three weeks!
Becky Cobler
President, Dexter Area Chamber of Commerce
734.576.6354
8123 Main St Suite 200 Dexter, MI 48130
