Snake River Family Festival Saturday

The Port of Whitman County, in conjunction with the Washington, Oregon and Idaho Wheat Growers, has been planning the first Snake River Family Festival for a year. The event is slated for Saturday, May 20, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will highlight the importance of the Columbia and Snake river system.

“Everything is pretty darn ready,” said Linda Olson, Port secretary. “The central park area is full. We have enough exhibitors to fill the space, plus overflow.”

The event will include a wheat box for youngsters to play in, instead of sand box, and Papé Machinery also plans to bring some of its equipment to the site for display.

“We also have two jet boats from Lewiston that will be full of wheat growers coming down, and they’ll dock there,” said Olson.

Beacon Hill Catering out of Spokane will provide the food for the event.

“The food will be great,” Olson promised.

The Port is hoping for about 600 people to attend the festival at Boyer Park and Marina. Olson said Rob Rich of Shaver Transportation in Portland will be the keynote speaker, and Nicole Lewis and band will provide live entertainment for almost the entirety of the festival.

“We’ll have a stage, hay bales, apples, popcorn and so much,” said Olson. “We’ll also have an information tent for people to talk about the pros of the river system, and we’ll have a lot of energy people on hand to discuss things.”

A press release about the festival highlights the events planned, including free food and non-alcoholic beverages, kids activities including a bouncy house and event passports, the live music from Lewis and her band, the information tent, event exhibitors that will include an interactive salmon display, farm machinery and barge and tug boat displays. Additionally, there will be an opportunity to win a Hells Canyon Jet Boat Tour for four.

“The point of this is yes to have fun, but secondly to look at the river system,” said Olson.

The press release also highlights some important facts about the river system, including that it is the number one wheat export gateway in the country, more than 4.3 million tons of cargo were barged on the Snake River in 2014, it provides river navigation on four Snake River locks and dams connecting in Idaho, Oregon and Washington, giving farmers access to global markets and produces enough clean energy to power a city the size of Seattle each year.

“We’re excited for it,” said Olson.

The event is free and open to the public and will be at Boyer Park and Marina. All of the Port of Whitman County commissioners are expected to be in attendance.

The Port of Whitman County office in Colfax will be closed on Friday as staffers will be at Boyer Park and Marina to set up for the festival.