Jeeps to take over Grand Haven for 3rd Jeep Fest

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (WOOD) — Thousands of people and their jeeps are expected to fill the streets of Grand Haven’s waterfront for the 3rd annual Jeep Fest.

Event founder Jason Rogers put on the first festival in 2022 after realizing the lakeshore town would be the perfect destination.

“I’ve been into Jeeps for a really long time. My family and I travel to different Jeep events all over the country. Daytona, Myrtle Beach, Moab and just coming back from one of them driving home I turned to my wife and I said you know we love coming to these things and we live in a town that people vacation in, that they want to visit, why isn’t there a jeep festival where we live?”

He contacted his friend, the owner of Baker Lumber, who sent some emails and Rogers quickly started getting responses from city leaders who were excited about the possibility. Rogers partnered with Kenzie’s Be Cafe to put on the first event. Since then, Jeep Fest has tripled in size.

“It’s turned into a second full-time job but it’s one that’s very rewarding.”

Proceeds benefit a different charity every year. This year, the festival will support the Ed and Nancy Hanenburg Children’s Advocacy Center, which offers support and resources for kids who’ve been sexually abused and their families.

“That’s something that just really affected us in our heart basically,” Rogers said. “It’s not something that people want to talk about you know, we don’t want to talk about that but sadly it happens and we wanted to support that in any way we can.”

The event itself is free, but Jeep owners can purchase different registration packages that include things like swag bags, t-shirts, preferred parking and a chance to enter awards. New this year, access to the obstacle course.

In the last two years, those registration packages sold out in April, but this year, they sold out in January.

Proceeds from registration, company sponsors and festival merchandise are all given to the charity.

“After we’ve paid every bill and everything after the week of jeep fest, we take our bank account, and we leave 50 dollars in it just to keep the account active and we write a check for whatever our balance is minus 50 dollars. So, we can honestly say that 100 percent of the proceeds of this event go to the charity that we use.”

The first two years combined raised more than $20,000. Local businesses also benefit from the festival.

“It’s bringing people not only just for this event but to flood this community with an influx of things before we get to summertime because a lot of us like coastal towns, Grand Haven, Saugatuck, even Muskegon, we live vicariously off the summer because of our beaches and to kind of tap into that even a couple weeks earlier we’ve had retailers tell us it’s literally the best month they’ve ever had outside of like fourth of July weekend or Christmas,” Rogers said.

He added that you don’t have to be a Jeep owner to enjoy the atmosphere.

“There’s so many things going on other than just you have to have a Jeep. We’ve added live music this year that starts at 11 a.m., you don’t have to have a ticket for it you just walk to waterfront stadium and you can watch it. We have all kinds of different food trucks and things like that. You don’t have to have a jeep to enjoy good food from local vendors. Grand Haven’s just a beautiful area, number one, so you can hang out by the water. The weather on Saturday is supposed to be amazing. It’s a family-friendly event.”

Jeep Fest 2024 runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 18. You can learn more about the festival on the event website or Facebook .

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