Y’all know how much I love Detroit, right? I mean, just last year I had a bunch of my favorite humans fly in so I could show them all around the incredible Motor City. So many people react with a “Why?!” when I tell them that I live in the Metro Detroit area, and that is because folks who haven’t adventured here have a view of the city that is decades old.
Michigan is COOL, y’all. And one of the coolest places to visit in the Mitten State to showcase this coolness is Belle Isle. It’s a 900+ acre island smack in the middle of the Detroit River. Yes, you can see Canada. That’s not the only reason Belle Isle is cool, though.
Let me give you a short list of the things you can see or do on Belle Isle:
- The anchor from the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
- A fountain honoring a person who donated 200,000 to the city of Detroit to build him a fountain
- It actually cost $500,000, so the city did not get a deal
- The oldest continuously operating public aquarium in North America
- It’s stunning
- and awesome
- and there is a volunteer whose only job is to squeegee the condensation from the front of the octopus tank
- A stunning nature conservatory, built in 1904 and designed by Albert Kahn
- 4 acres of undisturbed forested wetlands
- Dossin Great Lakes Museum
- This is always closed when I go
- I would like to go one day
- Giant slide
- Folks get injured on this bitch, y’all
- Nancy Brown Peace Carillion Clock
- Detroit Yacht Club
- A now-defunct casino
- The only marble lighthouse in the United States
- A stunning MCM feat, I love it
- A fishing area
- A beach
- Geocaching!
- A food truck with hot dogs and lemonade!
- SO many statues!
- A basketball court?
- I have never seen this, but it exists apparently
- So many sculptures
- A graffiti bridge
And that’s just, like, scraping the surface. Belle Isle is amazing, y’all.
So, when I heard that the Detroit Symphony Orchestra was putting on a free show on Belle Isle, I was interested. I was even more interested when I heard that some local rappers, Stoop Lee and Curtis Roach, would be joining them.
And then I spent the week leading up to the show obsessively listening to both these fellas, so I’d be prepared.
Here’s one of the lists I used so you can listen along as I tell the tale of our Saturday at the White House on Belle Isle.
Oh, one more thing is important before I get started:
The address of Belle Isle is 99 Pleasure Drive… no foolin’.
The Saturday Social
So, The Saturday Social is a series that Belle Isle hosts to get people on the island, engage with local talent, and, most importantly, raise money to turn the “White House on Belle Isle” into a food and beverage concept. Last year, they asked the people what they wanted, and that was their answer.
They call it:
A weekly kickback in the heart of Belle Isle featuring local food, drinks, and entertainment at the historic White House.
After attending? I call it a damn good time.
The event itself started at noon, but we didn’t get there until about 3:30, cause we had a podcast to record beforehand. Honestly, this felt like the perfect time to arrive. We slid into an almost perfect parking spot, got our wrists banded (and my hat complimented: “The color clear. That’s cute. It must be a band.” Me: “No, it is a color.”), and made our way into the event.
First up was eating, because I was hungy. Yes, “hungy”. If you watch Dropout, you understand (if you don’t, ask me for my login and primer on this human-focused streaming service). I knew Belle Isle had a food truck with a solid hot dog and killer lemonade, so even if the event itself had no offerings, I knew I could get that.
Luckily, there was pizza:
There was also an ice cream food truck, but if I’m getting ice cream outside the house, I’m getting it at Banana Split Heaven. There was also a mobile bar with local beer, so of course we got some of that too.
(all photos with timestamps were taken with what I am calling my Jack White camera, aka the camera I bought to take pics with at the Jack White concert that I had to keep in a pouch all night.)
Now, you will notice in that third pic that we got a close-up on the “Heroes to Hives” badge. That is the program that Mickey and I took last year to learn beekeeping. It is a 9-month program for Veterans that teaches them all about beekeeping. We were gonna keep bees this year, but things were too much in flux, so we’ll be starting that next year instead.
That Honey Oat Stout from Roar Brewing Company was made using honey collected and processed during the Heroes to Hives program… at the same farm we took the classes!
How did I find this out? Welp, I saw a fella wearing a Roar Brewing Company shirt, and I asked him if he was involved with the brewery or just a fan. Turns out he was the owner, and we had a lovely conversation about the folks who run the farm… and his beer, of course.
And that beer? Aces. Good flavor, excellent can design, and just good vibes all around. Plus, the brewery is veteran-owned and the first black-owned brewery in Detroit. Cool as hell.
People Watching
While we ate our pizza and drank our beers, we had a shady picnic table spot perfect for people watching. So that’s what we did. I really loved the no-phones feel of the Jack White show at Pine Knob, so I tried my best to keep my fingers off my phone. I did medium-well. Of course, I brought a notebook to take notes. And yes, we played the celebrity game.
Here’s a short list of some of the ‘celebs’ we saw on Belle Isle:
- 2 Luchuns
- Grace Reiter
- Amy Sedaris
- Half of LMFAO
- Busy Phillips
- (discount)
- Drew Garabo
- The dad from ‘Coming to America’
- Bill from Oblivion Taproom
- Mandal
- Milton from ‘Office Space’
- Young
- Red hair
- MalibuPJ
- The Deep
- Machine Gun Kelly
- JUDGIE!!!!!!
- The bad guy from ‘The White Lotus’
- Jeff Bridges
Yes, some of these folks aren’t celebrities so much as they are people we know in real life. That’s fine though. You can play the celebrity game however you want. This is how I like to play it. My friends are celebrities to me, okay?
Another thing we saw a lot of in the people-watching portion of events? IMPECCABLE FASHION.
I didn’t get pics of all of it, but I did get pics of my favorite couple, which I will share below. I did want to shout out the gentleman in the white flowy pants and shirt, simple black tank, and cowboy boots and hat. None of that should have worked together, but he was among the most fashionable at this show. I am sad I don’t have a photo of him.
Here are some fashions:
Okay, so that first couple you see? No notes on their fashion. His embroidered shirt was incredible, and the green in it perfectly matched the single green strap on her tank and the bright green of her socks. They looked good separately; they looked good together, and just looked effortlessly cool as a unit.
I did not take great pics of other outfits, because I feel intrusive taking pics of people. The middle human’s flowy pink top was the perfect complement to her black floral skirt, and she just looked so comfortable.
And that final pic was someone at the drink ticket table who the light was hitting just right, and I couldn’t resist snapping a pic with the good camera. She looks lovely. I hope she sees this blog and realizes just how lovely she is.
There was also a fella bopping around who was wearing a black shirt that said “BEANS” in what looked to be all-caps Helvetica. That’s it, that’s the fashion.
The Show
First pics, so you can feel the vibe as I type this up:
Those photos are in reverse order of the show. I was just too lazy to organize these correctly.
The show itself started with a DJ who, uh, DJ-ed for roughly 4 and a half hours. It was a marathon DJ session, but you know what? He kept the crowd moving, provided the perfect background sounds for a lovely afternoon in Detroit.
Then, the DSO got up on stage. Well, not the entire orchestra, obviously. They brought a string quartet, and here are the songs they played:
- “I’ve Got Rhythm”
- “Pomp & Circumstance”
- Felt weird to hear this outside of a graduation ceremony
- “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”
Then, after a quick reset of the stage, it was time for the boys to perform. One thing to note that I haven’t mentioned:
This was the first time Stoop Lee’s parents saw him perform. I think I got some pics of them in the background of some of the photos, and if yes, it is obvious they were having a fantastic time. I mean, of course they were. It was a wonderful performance.
They kept the crowd into the show, even though these aren’t songs that are part of the normal person’s lexicon. I got hype at each one, cause I had listened to both Stoop Lee and Curtis Roach pretty obsessively leading up to this show. That’s what I do. Obsess.
But only over things that are worth it.
For the hip hop portion of events, the boys were backed by a local band called The Culdesac. The live instruments really gave this show a strong, passionate vibe vs. some beats being played through a laptop.
Then for the last two songs, the boys were backed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (again, not the whole thing, just a fantastic string quartet).
This was honestly pretty magical, y’all. Two great tastes that taste great together and all that.
The final song was the most magical.
Here it is so you can listen:
It was obvious how much the performers, the audience, and the organizers truly love 99 Pleasure Drive. Everyone was into this song. Everyone was singing along. Everyone was loving exactly where they were at that exact moment.
It was fabulous; it was wonderful. I love my city.
We talked to Stoop Lee a bit after the show. We had to find out what flavor lollipop he would be, of course. Stoop gave me two options… and I should have them both ready by his next event: Detroit’s Second Annual Skateboarding and Music Festival.
See y’all there?
p.s. I think it is important to mention that the day after Stoop Lee and Curtis Roach performed this free show for their community… they opened for Chance the Rapper at Dearborn Homecoming (another free show for the community). Cool as hell.
p.p.s. here is a bad selfie:
