65 days and counting: Bloomsday presser at No-Li shares details and new poster ahead of race’s 50th anniversary

For 50 years, Bloomsday has been a staple of Spokane. With the race only 65 days away, race officials gathered at No-Li Brewhouse on Thursday to discuss what’s new and what remains the same.

Michael Kiter, the board president of the Lilac Bloomsday Association, said race registration is up by 25% so far this year. Until March 31, it costs $30 to sign up for Bloomsday. After that date, the price increases to $38.

Registration is open until race weekend, he said, although the entry fee will be heftier the closer race day gets. The actual course is the same as it was last year.

Last year, 35,168 people signed up for Bloomsday. This makes it the eighth-largest single distance road race in the world, not including the virtual participants. Kiter and the Bloomsday Board have set a goal of 50,000 people for 2026. The most people to ever sign up was 61,298 people in 1996.

“We’ve got a new registration program, and through that program, we’ve got an AI chat bot so people are able to get very simplistic questions answered,” Kiter said. “It’s absolutely awesome … This year, with it being our 50th, kind of the big things are going to be some of our more social events.”

No-Li Brewhouse, the Museum of Arts and Culture and the Terrain Gallery are all planning events for the day of and leading up to Bloomsday. The Museum of Arts and Culture is planning to showcase an exhibit starting March 27 called “14 Million Miles: 50 Years of Bloomsday” that will run until the day of the race on May 3. The exhibit, although it’s not yet on the MAC’s website, will display vintage photographs and memorabilia from previous races.

On March 31, No-Li Brewhouse is hosting a “Run with the Perennials” event with the 70 perennials who have run the race every single year since 1977. The event at No-Li is a unique opportunity to jog with the most tenured of racers.

Terrain Gallery has its own exhibit called “50 Years of Movement,” with an opening night slated exactly a month before the race, on April 3. Bloomsday enthusiasts will be able to examine previous posters and take 2026’s poster home with them. There’s also an opportunity to get this year’s poster signed by artist Ken Spiering.

Spiering is probably most recognized as the creator of the Radio Flyer red wagon in Riverfront Park. To make the wagon, Spiering said he worked every day for a year straight. He shaved six hours off of one Sunday during that time period for personal reasons, but other than that, he worked tirelessly to make his vision come to life.

But his work, including the fish that follows the flow of traffic outside the Spokane Convention Center, graces much of downtown Spokane.

Spiering, who has been an artist for 55 years, said he remembers doing the Bloomsday poster for the 25th anniversary. This year marks the 13th poster he and artist John Mraz have produced ahead of race day.

“You’d call it brainstorming if you had half a brain,” Spiering said. “But the process that John and I have gone through for each poster is you just kick a lot of ideas around, and some of them, you just kick down the road because they don’t go very far. And some of them seem to have potential. And when we started thinking about the image of Spokane and the bridge, I was imagining the blocks it takes to build anything, and then all of a sudden Lego blocks (came to mind.)”

So Mraz and Spiering contacted Lego’s attorneys to make sure they weren’t infringing on any copyright laws. What they ended up making is an aerial view of the finish line on downtown Spokane’s Monroe Street Bridge. After two months of brainstorming and six weeks of rough drafts, their final creation is a picture of the leadup to the finish line, complete with the courthouse, My Fresh Basket, Golden Rule Brake and more. All of the caricatures are, for lack of a better term, blocky.

“It brings the humor and the warmth and the good feeling that I think a lot of people associate with Bloomsday,” Spiering said. “At least, that’s our hope.”

Kiter said he likes how detailed the image is without being overcrowded. A quick once-over may not reveal all the intricacies exhibited, such as the small green bike lying on its side next to the Spokane River.

The first year that Spiering worked on a poster was 1992, and he credits the success of his Bloomsday posters to his relationship with Mraz and commercial photographer J. Craig Sweat.

In addition to the AI chatbot and multiple events to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Bloomsday, a new Teen Advisory Board was formed to attract high school students to the race.

Ava Schumacher, a junior at Gonzaga Prep, is a chairperson on the Teen Advisory Board. She’s run four Bloomsdays and remarked how special it is to go from a kid running the race to a mentor trying to encourage other young people to get outside and run, walk or jog the 7.46-mile course.

“We are doing this thing called Vulture Victory,” she said. “So it’s a high school competition between schools to see who can get the most participants in Bloomsday. And whoever wins gets any type of food truck, coffee shop, Kona ice truck (parked at their school).”

In addition, she and representatives from six different schools in the area are trying to engage with elementary students to encourage them to participate in Bloomsday. By marketing the event through social media apps like TikTok, she hopes to garner even more attention to the race on its 50th anniversary.

Kiter emphasized that they are always in need of more volunteers. Since the inception of Bloomsday, more than 1.5 million people have either run, walked or jogged through the streets of Spokane. With a goal of 50,000 participants for this year’s event, the need for volunteers is evident. So far, Kiter said they have at least 400 volunteers signed up to help on May 3.

“If people are considering doing it, they should sign up,” Kiter said. “Having a goal, whether it is just coming out and walking 7.46 miles, or if they’re going to come out and get an absolute PR, sign up, come out, enjoy the event.”