Name: The Gordon Lightfoot Tribute @ Park Theatre
Start: 2025-11-15T19:00:00-05:00
Location: Park Theatre

The Gordon Lightfoot Tribute @ Park Theatre

Park Theatre presents:
The Gordon Lightfoot Tribute
Saturday November 15, 2025
Park Theatre - 248 S. River Holland, MI 49423
Doors @ 7PM | Show @ 8PM
18+ or with adult supervision
Tickets: $25ADV / $30DOS / $50VIP / $100GA TABLE UPGRADE
2025 - THE EDMUND FITZGERALD’S 50 th ANNIVERSARY
The links between Canadian-born singer Gordon Lightfoot and Michigan are many. Mackinaw City’s
Mike Fornes plays the role of the Canadian minstrel in a Michigan way, a sincere attempt to portray the troubadour as if you are seeing Lightfoot live in concert. A member of the Historical Society of Michigan and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, Fornes combines storytelling with Lightfoot’s hit songs to bring the music, poetry and culture of the folk-icon to Great Lakes audiences.
Lightfoot wrote “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald,” the epic story of the 1975 Lake Superior shipwreck tragedy that claimed 29 lives. The ship’s bell is reverently displayed at the Great Lakes
Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point, Michigan. Fornes performs annually at the annual bell-tolling
ceremony for the Fitzgerald’s lost souls. His relationships with the crew’s surviving family members, and Lightfoot himself, generate many first-hand accounts of the tragedy and the writing of the iconic song. There is so much more to Mike’s performance than the iconic shipwreck song. Audiences will hear Lightfoot’s radio hits, including “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Rainy Day People,” “Carefree Highway,” “The Circle Is Small,” “Cotton Jenny,” “Canadian Railroad Trilogy,” “Beautiful,” “Early Morning Rain,” “Sundown,” “Summertime Dream,” and many more album cuts that express the “Up North” vibe.
Mike’s tireless research and personal interaction with Gordon Lightfoot have led to accurate
mannerisms, speaking patterns, clothing, and of course identical guitars used by the Canadian icon on
stage. Fornes uses his program to demonstrate his love of a genre of timeless music that captured millions during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. His catalogue of Gord’s music includes 76 songs that he chooses from in concert, backed by an outstanding band that recreates the sound of Lightfoot’s timeless recordings.