By Justin Aufdermauer
Executive Director
It’s another jam-packed weekend in downtown Tillamook as the 61st annual June Dairy Parade rolls into town. This event needs no introduction, as our community has always been fantastic about getting out early and setting up to watch one of the longest parades in the state. There’s live music, performances by local dancers, creative floats… You never know what you might see.
This year’s theme is ‘Party in the Pasture’ and there will be awards for First, Second and Third prizes in each of the different float categories:
To clear up any confusion about the parade route, it will be exactly the same as last year. I’m sure you recall that we reversed the route last year and started at 11th and Main and ended at Goodspeed Park. That was a trial run to see if the change in direction would help open Highway 101 quicker and get traffic moving. Traffic congestion has been a major issue in years past and what we learned was that we were able to get the highway reopened almost an hour sooner than what we considered “normal.”
We did originally think this year we would have to route the parade up Fourth Street to avoid the open construction zone and the risk of parade watchers in these areas. However, the construction zone is fluid, as we know, and it turns out we will be able to turn on Third Street from Main like last year!
The festivities of the day don’t end with the parade; the Tillamook Farmers Market will be open from 9 – 2 that day on the corner of Laurel and Second Street. If you came out for our opening day last weekend you saw what a renowned success it was! The live music was phenomenal, the vendors all had beautiful displays, and there was a wonderful mix of product. The prepared food and baked goods were out of this world! It’s definitely worth stopping by again this weekend, or come by for the first time if you haven’t been yet, to see what all the fun is about. I hung out for the entire day because there was so much going on and so many people to see that I didn’t want to miss anything. Our farmers and artisan vendors really knocked it out of the park and came prepared for a fantastic opening day.
This Saturday the Market will have a live steel drum band playing at 10 a.m. on the Courthouse lawn, and then Driftwood Combo will be entertaining guests with their jazzy tunes starting at 11.
And, of course, after the parade the Tillamook Revitalization Association is hosting live music that will be fun for the whole family on Second Street in front of Lucky Bear Soap Co. and will have some fun games for kids. Over at Werners Beef n Brew they will be hosting a flag ceremony right after the parade and will be open for lunch.
But wait, there’s more! That evening starting at 4 p.m. the Tillamook County Rodeo is having their first Hooves n Hops events at the Fairgrounds. Several breweries will be offering tastings in the Sue Durrer Dairy Barn during the rodeo, and a ticket to Hooves n Hops will get you in for the tasting and the rodeo – so the fun doesn’t have to stop! Hope to see you at one or all of these fun events on Saturday!