CASSOPOLIS — At the end of the month, the Village of Cassopolis expects its Main Street, an often underutilized portion of town, to be packed with people of all ages: from screaming children bouncing and running around to adults kicking back while they enjoy live music, craft beer and specialty cocktails.

On Saturday, June 30, the village is hosting its fourth annual Pioneer Days from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Entrance to all associated events will be free. Several hundred people attended last year’s event.

This year’s Pioneer Days will include 20 to 25 vendors, such as arts and crafts booths, local artists, Baja Taco and other food sellers.

“Our coffee shop student group will have a booth down here as well,” said Emilie Sarratore, the village manager. “So they’ll be down here showing everyone what we’re working on, so that will be great.”

There will also be a kids area, located behind the village hall. This will feature a series of inflatable houses and obstacle courses, a rock wall and a dunk tank, which Sarratore says local police officers have volunteered to participate in. New to this year is a zipline.

“I think that the generosity of our sponsors falls right into what we’re doing because, boy they really stepped up this year,” Sarratore said. “We told them we wanted a zipline and what that cost of that looks like, and they really stepped up to the plate to make sure that happens this year.”

Beginning at 5 p.m., there will be a beer garden, located on Broadway in downtown, next to the old fire station. It is sponsored by Lucky Girl Brewing Crossroad out of Paw Paw and will feature many of their beers, as well as specialty mixed drinks prepared just for the event.

Starting on at 6 p.m., the northern Indiana rock group Sideways will provide live music to the beer garden. There is no cost to enter the beer tent, so if people do not want to drink they are able to just listen to live music and hang out, but Sarratore says entrants must be 21 or older.

“One of the things we hear all of the time is that we need more events here,” she said. “When people come to an event, it makes it easier to host the next one. This year, we really worked hard to bring in a bigger-name band for our beer garden for some live entertainment. If we show Lucky Girl [Brewing] that we’re a community that can get behind a small brewery, perhaps they’ll look at us as a potential new home. So lots of great stuff happening, lots of good reasons to be down here, and just enjoy a beautiful day here in Cassopolis.”

“I think that there’s a lot of great things happening here in the village,” she said. “We’ve generated a lot of excitement with Imagine Cass, and this is just another way for you to see what’s here in our community and how we’re thinking about growing. It’s a great opportunity for the kids in our community to enjoy their community. [It’s great to see] that the community is really supportive of what we do here and it’s really a partnership. I think all of those things are really important.”