For some people, traditions are everything. Whether it be national holidays, festive celebrations, or family get-togethers; the concept of coming together to spend time with each other is what keeps people pushing. For a small town in the East Grays Harbor area, that yearly tradition can be described in two words: Bear Festival.
With the 63rd Bear Festival in McCleary approaching this weekend, visitors have a surplus number of options to partake in during the three-day event. This festival plans to be even bigger than in 2021 and is poised to see much higher participation.
Sammantha Cody, who serves as the Royalty Director for the festival, says she’s excited to not have COVID-19 restrictions, but instead focus on increasing entertainment.
“We’re expanding even further now since we’ll be able to bring back things given that we don’t have to provide so many spacing regulations,” Cody said. “The parade will be larger, and the number of vendors is much more than last year.”
Although vendors will consist of many different foods and drink varieties, there will also be lots of craft vendors, including homemade foods, paintings and candles among other things. All the work for the three-day festival is done solely by community volunteers. According to Cody, without the entire community, the festival wouldn’t be the attraction it is today. The most important volunteer work done though is the preparation of the main event: bear stew.
For the entire day leading up to the grand parade, community members from McCleary come together to help prepare the ingredients that make up the bear stew, while the bear meat is obtained through local hunters and the Washington Fish and Wildlife Department. Every year, the bear stew features over 100 pounds of bear meat, although sometimes beef is supplemented in cases where not enough bear meat can be obtained.
Festival visitors can feast on the community-made bear stew for the small price of a Bear Festival Button. Buttons are $3.00 each and provide all patrons with a serving of Bear Festival stew, baked beans, watermelon, and a roll following the grand parade on Saturday, July 9, at noon. Once the parade is completed, people are inclined to make their way to the covered kitchen area, located at Beerbower Park.
“We’ve had lines of people go as far back as five or six street blocks just to get some of the bear stew,” Cody said laughing. “No matter how big the lines are though, we’ll always have enough to feed everyone.”
Each day of the festival will feature something new. Friday is coronation where the Royalty Program will crown Iva Madison the 2022 Senior Queen of Bear Festival and kicks off the weekend-long softball tournament, which features the McCleary Police Department against the McCleary Fire Department.
The first pitch will be thrown by Madison, as is tradition when a new Queen or King is named for the Bear Festival. Saturday afternoon is the parade, followed by the serving of the bear stew while live entertainment goes into the night. Sunday sees the festival wrap up with the McCleary car show and a town-wide soapbox derby sponsored by various local businesses.
The festival is free to attend and will be held from Friday, July 8, through Sunday, July 10. For more detailed information, such as entertainment venues and scheduled events, people should check out the McCleary Bear Festival website.
