Hillyard Festival provides whimsy, sense of community

Desi Bucknell has a secret: “I don’t make enemies because you never know when you need someone’s help.”

The president of the Hillyard Festival Association has a reputation for knowing everything about organizing the annual street festival in the northeast Spokane neighborhood.

But four years of calling, decorating, prepping and planning have worn her down to the point where this year may be her last year planning the event.

“Yeah, so that’s a lot of running around,” Bucknell says with a laugh.

For this year’s Hillyard Festival Gazette, produced each year before the festival, she personally hunted down nearly 65 local businesses to get their advertising in the paper.

To promote the event, Bucknell leaves copies of the Gazette wherever she goes – even if she’s waiting in the doctor’s office.

It works. Every year she says she finds new people strolling along Market Street in downtown Hillyard, and they come from all over the Spokane area.

The festival, which begins today at 11 a.m. and ends Sunday evening, has been a Hillyard tradition for more than 90 years.

This year’s theme is “Hillyard Pride.” Dawn Marie Andersch, an employee of Hot Rod Tattoo, has created a crest that symbolizes all aspects of the neighborhood: the railroad, the east side business area and the Rogers High School pirate mascot.

Weekend events include a beer garden, motorcycle swap, amateur boxing and a Skate Jam program at the Hillyard Skate Park, but the Hillyard Festival really revolves around the community.

“It’s really just a fun community kind of thing. It gets the kids and residents out (to watch) the events and the parade,” says Patty Howe, co-owner of Howe’s Auto.

Howe has participated in the Hillyard Hi-Jinks Parade for the last three years. Each year, she decorates her 1948 red Willys Jeepster which her father bought in 1967.

“It’s kind of the motto for the business,” she says.

One staple will be missing this year: It’s the first time in almost 10 years that Nancy Hesling, manager of the Big Sky Tavern, and her co-workers won’t be building an extravagant float for the parade.

“I just love parades,” Hesling says, but this year the Hillyard native explains she’s busy creating an indoor float for a convention in the fall.

One year their parade float had a Wizard of Oz theme. Last year it was hillbillies.

“Oh I just love parades – my grandkids love to ride on the float. We dress up in clown costumes, hand out balloons, it’s just a little community festival, but everyone seems to enjoy it,” says Hesling.

For Bucknell, this year’s festival theme speaks volumes about her neighborhood.

“I think it’s very important to know who your neighbors are,” she says. “I walk down the street, I know everybody and I like that.

“We are proud of Hillyard. We are proud of they way it was years ago, we are proud of the way it is today and what it will be.”