About Us:
The Hiawatha Music Non Profit Corporation - better known known as the Hiawatha Music Co-op - is a well-established and well-regarded, non-profit organization for the support of traditional American music. Hiawatha volunteers work hard to provide high-quality traditional-music events an area with an economy greatly affected by declines in the mining and timber industries, the 1996 closing of K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base, and the whimsies of weather and tourism. In 1993, Hiawatha received the Michigan Governor's Art Award, and in May 2006, Hiawatha received the Community Arts Impact Award from the Marquette Arts and Culture Center.

History:
The organization was founded in 1979, and 2006 marked the 28th year it has produced a three-day traditional-music Festival in Marquette County in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

The Festival began in 1979 in the small community of Champion, Mich. Now, approximately 3,500 people from throughout the upper Midwest - and from as far away as the coasts - attend each year's Festival at the Marquette Tourist Park.