The Willapa Festival will be going on in downtown Raymond all weekend.
The three-day event starts Friday at noon. Vendors and artists will have their wares for sale, and the music starts that evening at 7:30 on the main stage.
Ten local bands will entertain throughout the weekend. This year’s headliner is Giants in the Trees, the Pacific County band featuring former Nirvana bass player Krist Novoselic. They will play Saturday night at 8:30.
On Saturday at noon, the traditional parade features vintage car show participants, local community groups, youth organizations and more.
There are events happening all over town throughout the weekend including bounce houses, a kiddie train, a beer garden, carriage rides, softball, a cornhole tournament, a flea market, a vintage car show and the Willapa Home Brew Contest.
The classic car show will take place from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at South Fork Landing Park, at the intersection of Highway 101 and State Route 6.
On Sunday, there will be free magic entertainment, face painting, hay scramble, cookie decorating and crafts for the kids starting at noon. Music in the park will continue all day for the entire family, and the festival concludes with what is being billed as an epic lip-sync battle at 5 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, call 360-942-5580 or email willapaprinting@gmail.com.
Environmental Education Fair
During the festival, the Willapa Environmental Working Group will sponsor an Environmental Education Fair with a booth near the Seaport Museum. There will be speakers, educational materials, hands-on events for kids and door prizes.
On Saturday starting at 1 p.m., presentations will address environmental topics such as “Bees, Nature and Us” by biologist and lifelong beekeeper Paul Young, and “Tying Our Economy to the Environment” by Jim Sayce, executive director of the Pacific County Economic Development Council.
Additionally, Nicole Apelian, Ph.D., from the reality TV show “Alone,” will talk about how one’s personal well-being is enhanced by connecting to nature and community. She also will be answering questions about her time surviving in the wilderness with little more than her wits and her knife.
In addition to other prize drawings, plants that attract and sustain honeybees will be awarded, and the grand prize award is a Nicole Apelian-designed emergency survival kit.
(Courtesy Willapa Harbor Chamber of Commerce) The Willapa Home Brew Contest will take place on Saturday.
