Skip Schulz/For the Gazette - The village of Ontonagon grows from 1,000 people to many thousand every year for their Labor Day Weekend Festival, which started on Friday and runs till Sunday Night.

ONTONAGON — The 63rd Annual Ontonagon Labor Day Festival kicked off on Friday and runs through Sunday night. The festival draws thousands of people from all over to the village, as well as brings former residents back to the community they either went to school at, or used to live in and work.

Ontonagon’s River Street, which is where the business district resides, is shut down to vehicular traffic for Maxwell Street Days from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. River Street is where U.S. 45 starts. U.S. 45 runs all the way to Mobile, Alabama.

There is sidewalk sales, vendors and a bounce house for kids.

At the end of the street is the Laborfest Auto Show. This runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and has hot rods and vintage cars.

Ontonagon has become the village of parades. While Sunday’s parade has people three rows deep from one end of the downtown district to the other end, this year’s Kiddies Parade has moved from running on Monday, Labor Day, to running on Saturday. Sponsored by the Knights of Columbus, the Kiddies Parade starts at noon and will be led by the Copper Country Clown Band.

Saturday will also include the bed races. They will start at 2 p.m.

The pancake breakfast will be on Sunday from 7:30 to 11 a.m. and take place at the Ontonagon VFW. Also on Sunday morning will be the Aspirus-Ed Hanson Memorial Run. Registration is from 8:45 to 9:45 a.m. with the run starting at 10 a.m.

The parade on Sunday starts with float assembly and judging at noon. It begins its trek down River Street at 2 p.m. The Drum Corps concert takes place at the end of the parade. The festivities conclude with CommunityFest from 4 to 10 p.m. at the Ontonagon Recreation Building. The band Easy Money will entertain hundreds of people in the building, and the 50-50 winners are announced at 8 p.m.