Troy Family Daze Opens Thursday

Four days of carnival rides, live music, games, stage shows and a variety of other family-oriented fun will kick off Thursday as the Troy Family Daze Festival returns to the city for the first time since 2009. 

Started as a volunteer-produced festival in 1968, Troy Daze is the longest-running community celebration of its kind in the city.

"In this day and age, with everything so going so fast, it's nicer to throw an old-time festival — like you see in the old movies," said Jim Cyrulewski, vice president of the North Woodward Community Foundation, the new fiscal sponsor of the event. "It's a nice tradition for people to come back to every year."

The festival first fell on hard times in 1979, when it failed for the first time and led to a cancellation of the event until 1981, said Tom Kaszubski, president of the North Woodward Community Foundation, which is providing financial backing for this year's festival.

Kaszubski, who began volunteering with the festival in 1986, said insurance requirements to hold the event were met throughout the 1990s with the help of the city, which eventually became the producer of the event. However, financial difficulties led the city to drop its financial support for the festival, leaving longtime volunteers looking for a new way to hold the celebration after 2009.

"We started talking about (running the festival) in 2007 at the (North Woodward Community) Foundation," Kaszubski said. "We were already primed to do it."

Kaszubski said several people in the community approached him and the foundation about reviving the festival after the 2010 event was canceled. Looking for a suitable site to host the festival, Kaszubski said he spoke with the pastor at the about using the church's 43-acre grounds.

By July 2010, committees began forming, the new site was identified, and the foundation agreed to take the financial lead on producing the festival.

Kaszubski said many of this year's 300 volunteers have worked together for decades to help hold the festival. The festival committee alone has about 262 years of experience running the festival, he said.

"It's like a family," he said. "We all know each other and joke about things that happened years ago."

Proceeds from the four-day event will be returned to the North Woodward Community Foundation's festival event fund and be returned to the community through grants from the foundation.

While the location and specifics behind the event have changed, Kaszubski said attendees can expect most of the same attractions as in years past.

Carnival rides and games are still provided by Arnold's Amusement, and music and stage shows are scheduled for every day of the event, which runs from Thursday through Sunday. A fireworks show is scheduled for Saturday evening, which will be preceded by an all-day talent show for various age groups. A children's corner, youth and parent games, community booths and traditional festival food will be available throughout the four-day event.

More than 2,500 paved parking spaces are available at the Zion Christian Church, with overflow parking and shuttles to and from the festival at on Wattles, near Crooks, and , just north of the festival grounds. Parking is free.

Kaszubski and Cyrulewski each said his favorite part of the event is the first day kickoff, which includes a Special Children's Day from 10 a.m.-1 p.m., which allows special-needs children exclusive access to the festival to partake in games and rides.

"For some of them, its the only time to enjoy a carnival and go on the rides," Cyrulewski said. "We get lots of feedback from teachers and the schools. This is the one event that they look forward to attending."