Parade starts at 10 a.m.
The Bob Stone Freeway Auto Center Cherry Festival Parade starts at 10 a.m. this year, an hour earlier than in the past, but still follows the city’s traditional parade route.
The 2013 Northwest Cherry Festival revives some crowd favorites and brings some new elements to the table under this year’s theme, Cherry Enchantment.
“We are reviving Little Royal Ann and Royal Andy,” said Lisa Farquharson. “We’re also bringing back King Bing and Queen Ann.”
Voting for the kids’ court takes place at this year’s court sponsor, Rivermark Credit Union until April 23.
The youngsters will be crowned Thursday, April 25, at the Cherry Festival Lip Sync. The event starts at 7 p.m. at The Dalles Wahtonka High School’s auditorium. King Bing and Queen Ann, Dawn and Randy Barrett will also be presented at the big event (see story, page B4).
The Lip Sync will also have some new aspects this year, Farquharson said.
“We’ll be videotaping each of the acts individually and showing them on YouTube all next year.
And for new activities, Brewer’s Grade (formerly Unwound), the featured act on Saturday’s Sen. Ted Ferrioli main stage, will also be shooting their new music video Friday evening.
“Our first BG single is finished and we are throwing a HUGE party to celebrate!” is the report on the band’s Facebook event page. “Our plan is to pack about 500 people in The Dalles Civic Auditorium’s historic theater. We are going all out with a professional video production company. We’ll need a full house for the video to work out the way we’ve planned, so we are calling on our friends, family and fans to help us pack the place out.”
The event gets under way at 6 p.m.
That’s not the only activity centering on the Civic Auditorium, several Cherry Festival activities that were spread across the city in previous years are now at the Civic, including the Bicoastal Media Home and Lifestyle Show.
“Almost every possible space in the Civic is filled and we will have outside exhibits,” said Rick Cavagnaro, Bicoastal sales manager (See story, page B5).
The three-day event starts Friday at 5 p.m. and continues through the weekend.
Brewer’s Grade is also organizing the entertainment for Saturday’s main stage, which also takes place in the Civic’s historic theater, providing music all day long, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“Ambassadors will be doing their big 50-50 fundraiser all around the Cherry Festival,” Farquharson said. “The money they raise is going toward a community business showcase in November.”
The Nov. 7 event will feature food and retail businesses, which will be selling their wares for the holidays. With the main stage inside this year, that means a bit more room to extend the open air market on East Fourth Street. This year it will spread from Federal most of the way to Union, meeting up with the Safety Fair and the Renken Farms Petting Zoo.
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