Photo provided by Visit Keweenaw People patronize last year’s inaugural Memorial Day weekend festival on the pier in Houghton. This year’s festival, renamed the Locavore Festival, takes place from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday.

HOUGHTON — Memorial Day weekend kicks off the summer — and in Houghton, the farmer’s market season.

On the downtown pier in Houghton, people will be able to look through the best in local vendors from plant starts, food and arts at the Locavore Festival. The event runs from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Forty-three vendors are taking part in this year’s event, about 10 more than last year, said Amy Zawada, Houghton’s community and business development director.

The Locavore theme — named after enjoyers of local food, art and music — is borne out by the lineup. As people meet with local vendors, they can also enjoy live music, in the form of ’90s pop from Dead Car and bluegrass by Dead North. Kids can also enjoy a petting zoo featuring local goats and lambs.

Local food is also coming via truck, as the Dog Father and the Matador food trucks will be serving up tasty foods on-site.

This is the second year for the festival, which had been organized by the From the Ground farmer’s market collective last year, Zawada said. This year, they handed over organizational role to the City of Houghton, who’s being helped by Visit Keweenaw and the Keweenaw Chamber of Commerce.

The collective will still be at the festival looking for potential vendors. The farmer’s market will be returning to the pier every Tuesday throughout the summer starting June 11.

“I think it’s great because it is the kickoff to the farmer’s market season and really the kickoff to summer,” she said. “It had a big-city market feel, and people just loved it. Between the vendors and the music and the baby animals, I think it’s going to be awesome.”

This is also the first time festivalgoers will be looking up at the new-look Lakeshore Drive, following last summer’s teardown of the parking deck. Zawada encouraged people to continue their Saturday by checking out the rest of downtown, with the new pedestrian corridor leading up to Shelden Avenue also boasting a series of low-grade ramps for wheelchair accessibility.