Festival honors Hillyard heroes
In 1910, William Howard Taft was president of the United States. Thomas Edison first demonstrated the talking motion picture. Senora Dodd, a resident of Spokane, came up with the idea for Father’s Day.
It also was the year when the Hillyard Festival debuted in the northeast Spokane neighborhood.
The event celebrating Hillyard started as a harvest festival 97 years ago. It has been held every year since except for two years during World War I.
It has been known as Jim Hill Days and Hillyard Days, but it has been called the Hillyard Festival for the last 11 years.
This year’s festival, with a theme of “Hillyard Heroes,” will be held Aug. 3-5 in the streets along Market Street as well as in Sharpley-Harmon Park and the Hillyard Skate Park.
“Come expecting to have a good time,” said Desi Bucknell, president of the Hillyard Festival Association.
The festivities will kick off at 11 a.m. Aug. 3 in Sharpley-Harmon Park when vendors open their booths and entertainment begins on the main stage.
This year’s festival will include some new events.
The Concrete Rodeo 2007 Tour will be held Aug. 4 at the Hillyard Skate Park.
This national tour attracts local skateboarders to compete, with all competitors getting two 60-second runs through the entire skate park.
The top three competitors in each age group and the top three skaters overall will receive medals.
Everyone who wins a medal will be invited to compete in the Concrete Rodeo Tour Finals in Portland at the end of August.
Cost to compete in the rodeo is $25; registration will begin at 9 a.m.
Another highlight of the Hillyard Festival this year will be the fireworks display. Hillyard Kiwanis Club and Rocketman Pyro will present the fireworks at 10 p.m. Aug. 4.
The Lions Club not only will offer its popular bingo, but its medical screening van also will be available throughout the weekend. People can have their vital signs checked free of charge by medical personnel.
“They check everything,” Bucknell said. She said this is one of the most important events the festival offers because the screening van is all about helping people.
Two Renaissance companies will be on hand all three days and will stage a human chess game.
Roving Gamblers Motorcycle Club will present its Show-n-Shine competition Aug. 4. For a $10 registration fee, motorcycle enthusiasts can shine their bikes to be judged in one of six categories: stock, custom, trike, sidecar, classic (1987 and older) and work-in-progress bikes.
The contest will start immediately after another perennial favorite, the Hillyard Hi-Jinks parade.
The parade will begin at 10 a.m. Aug. 4 and travel north on Market Street from Broad Avenue to Sharpley-Harmon Park.
It will include the Parade of Bikes for kids who want to decorate their bicycles to match the theme of the parade. The Hi-Jinks parade also will feature floats, antique hot rods, firetrucks, political candidates, dancing girls and beer trucks.
Entrants in the parade traditionally pass out candy to spectators lining Market Street.
This year’s parade marshals are J.R. Sloan, Dave Griswold and Bob Lawrence, three Hillyard residents considered heroes for their work in trying to find a new use for the Joe E. Mann Center, which is being abandoned by the Army Reserve, in Hillyard.
Spectators should bring blankets and chairs to Sharpley-Harmon Park. Last November, a fire in Minnehaha Park destroyed a large number of benches and tables belonging to the Spokane Parks and Recreation Department. Many neighborhood festivals have been affected by the loss.
The Hillyard Festival has received a donation of bleachers for the parade from A to Z Rentals.
The festival also has received donations from its sponsors, Sterling Savings Bank, Country Homes Realty and Cliff’s Quality Auto.
A fundraiser that helps pay for the festival is the Hillyard Festival Gazette, a publication produced once a year. The 24-page newspaper includes a schedule of activities, fun games and news affecting Hillyard. It can be found in businesses throughout Hillyard.