2026 Jobbie Nooner
Jobbie Nooner is set to return to Gull Island on Friday, June 26, 2026, bringing another massive day of boats, music, floating parties, and nonstop summer energy to Lake St. Clair. Widely considered one of the largest boat parties in the country, Jobbie Nooner has grown from a small gathering of auto workers in the 1970s into a legendary Midwest boating tradition drawing tens of thousands of people every summer.
Held at Gull Island near the South Channel of Harsens Island, the event transforms the surrounding water into a giant floating party zone packed with tied-up boats, anchored flotillas, music, inflatables, and thousands of boaters gathered together throughout the day. Organizers and longtime attendees often compare the atmosphere to a floating Mardi Gras on the water.
The 2026 edition of Jobbie Nooner is scheduled for Friday, June 26.
The event originally began in 1974 when a small group of Detroit-area auto workers — known locally as “Jobbies” — took the last Friday in June off work to party on the lake. Over the decades, the gathering exploded in popularity and evolved into one of the most recognizable boating events anywhere in the Midwest.
Unlike organized poker runs or ticketed boating festivals, Jobbie Nooner is primarily an open boating gathering where participants arrive by boat and tie together around Gull Island throughout the day. Boats of every type participate, including pontoons, wake boats, center consoles, cruisers, performance boats, and offshore builds.
Many boaters begin arriving early Friday morning to secure favorable anchoring and tie-up locations around the island. Some groups even arrive Thursday evening and remain through the weekend. Because Gull Island is only accessible by water, the event creates a completely boat-centered atmosphere with no traditional land-based festival infrastructure.
The event area around Gull Island and nearby Muscamoot Bay has become one of the most famous boating party destinations in Michigan, regularly hosting other large raft-up events including the annual Raft Off later in the summer.
With thousands of boats, enormous floating tie-ups, and one of the wildest boating atmospheres on the Great Lakes, Jobbie Nooner continues to stand out as one of the most iconic summer boating traditions in the United States.