GRAND HAVEN, MI – Sail ho, Grand Haven!

The eighth annual Michigan Pirate Festival is dropping anchor for a six-day stay Aug. 4-10 at Loutit District Library, 407 Columbus Ave., Harbor Island, the Musical Fountain, Chinook Pier and downtown in Grand Haven.

This year's festival theme is "Pirates through the Ages," featuring actors recreating famed pirates from history, both real and fictitious. Pirate actors from Michigan and other areas of the Midwest will rise from Davy Jones' Locker to put on several educational- and entertainment-based shows throughout the week.

Loutit District Library community relations coordinator Larry Halverson said he expects as many as 300 participants to come walk the plank each day, diving into a world of nautical knowledge and crawling into the minds of historical figures best known for pillaging the seven seas.

"It's to get people in for the library experience," Halverson said. "We want to have them see it's fun to learn. It also changes the library identity to say we are a fun place and reading can be fun and we have a lot of pirate statistics out and stuff like that."

Festival attendees will get their sea legs through crafts and coloring events, a pirate carnival, a puppet show, a sparring session and a mermaid sing-a-long, among several other events.

Harbor Island is set to host pirate merchants, stages, cannons and encampments to make pirates not feel marooned while in Grand Haven. Several businesses in the downtown area also are taking part in a treasure hunt to find various goods while drawing a young consumer base to the area.

The festival largely is geared toward young children and senior citizens, though Halverson suggested people of all ages hardly would hang the jib while in attendance.

Event founder Dan Leonard, who also happens to play Count d'Booty in the Brethren of the Great Lakes, said the festival allows attendees to hit the motherload of pirate culture. Leonard, an automotive engineer by day, gets into character and entertains attendees as Count d'Booty, whose namesake comes as the pirate in charge of counting and distributing treasure.

"You get to go out and be a little free, be a little more unrestrained," Leonard said. "It generates a lot of fun around you. For me personally, I like a lot of history so I've studied a lot of it from the buccaneer era to the revolutionary war in the Caribbean.

"It helped me learn what I know and what I want to learn."

Here's a full list of activities taking place at the Loutit District Library during the Michigan Pirate Festival:

Monday, Aug. 4

11 a.m. Pirate crafts and coloring (ages 3 and up)

1 p.m. Jack's Story Time (all ages)

6:30 p.m. Small Arms demonstration

7 p.m. Small Arms discussion

Tuesday, Aug. 5

11 a.m. Pirate Carnival (ages 3 and up)

4:30 p.m. Gypsy Raqs bell dance class (ages 4-7)

7 p.m. Pirate Puppet Show

Wednesday, Aug. 6

11 a.m. Sparring with Sparrow and Friends (ages 4-7)

1 p.m. Sparring with Sparrow and Friends (ages 8-13)

7 p.m. Mermaid Sing-A-Long

Thursday, Aug. 7

11 a.m. Discussion Series: Dress Like a Pirate (all ages)

1 p.m. Pirate crafts and coloring (ages 3 and up)

7 p.m. Gypsy Raqs belly dance class (ages 4-7)

Friday, Aug. 8

11 a.m. Pirate Storytime (all ages)

1 p.m. Sea Shanty Sing-A-Long

For more information about the festival, contact Halverson at (616) 842-5560 or visit michiganpiratefestival.com.

Dillon Davis is a staff writer at MLive Muskegon Chronicle. Email him at ddavis11@mlive.com and follow him on Facebook and on Twitter.