National Cherry Festival debuts Michigan’s first mobile fitness court

Priority Health rolled out Michigan’s first mobile fitness court at the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City, turning the Festival of the Races into a public demo for free outdoor workouts and a grip-strength challenge. The activation landed in the middle of the festival’s 100th celebration, when downtown streets, the bayfront and Traverse City Central High School drew some of the biggest crowds of the week.

The fitness court appeared alongside the Meijer Festival of Races, which marked 53 years in 2026 and was scheduled for July 11 at Traverse City Central High School. That race lineup included the Priority Health 5K, Michigan Planners 10K, Michigan Planners McKinley Challenge 15K and Michigan Planners Half Marathon, with packet pickup set for Friday, July 10, from 2 to 6 p.m. and Saturday, July 11, from 5:30 to 6:30 a.m.

Priority Health and the National Fitness Campaign say their statewide partnership is built to fight obesity, improve quality of life and create more accessible community gathering places for exercise. The program now has 33 Fitness Courts open across Michigan, and National Fitness Campaign says the effort has reached 24 Michigan communities and more than $3 million in public-private investment to date.

The mobile version matters because it is not built to sit idle as a one-time festival prop. Its design allows it to move, which raises the possibility that a branded health amenity introduced for Cherry Festival crowds could keep working as public infrastructure after the races end, whether at parks, schools or downtown gathering spaces. National Fitness Campaign points to the Boardman Lake Loop Fitness Court in Grand Traverse County as an example of that longer-term model, saying it gives 25,000 Michiganders access to free outdoor wellness programming.

That local site has also hosted weekly Adult Recess classes led by JodiAnn Stevenson, wellness director at the Grand Traverse Bay YMCA, showing how a fitness court can become more than a display. In a county that leans hard on outdoor recreation and summer tourism, the question now is whether the mobile court remains a one-week attraction or becomes a repeatable asset that local officials and health partners can move into permanent use.