I hope you had a chance to get down to the activities at the Si View Community Center during the Festival at Mount Si, or saw the parade, fireworks or something during our annual celebration of… what?

I stopped to ask myself exactly what is it that we are celebrating? I spent part of three days down there: Friday evening at the community center and all of the booths, which offered everything from elephant ears to Sno Falls beers, Saturday to watch the parade, and Sunday to participate in the annual Chili Cookoff—this time not as a cook, but as a judge.

Now, I am curious what we are celebrating. It’s not part of Seafair—that ended with the hydro races. Is it an attempt to bring tourists into our town to clog traffic? Raise the airborne dust level? Spend money on things we probably don’t need? It it just a couple of days to feature a LOT of yard sales?

I would like to see the entire affair moved into downtown North Bend in an effort to allow local vendors to offer sale items from their stock, show non-residents what they have to offer, and let the majority of the food served be from our local restaurateurs. Block off a side street or two for the handicraft vendors, but let the visitors see what North Bend is all about.

You can get elephant ears or any of the other myriad foodstuffs at any county fair, street show or whatever. How many times do our visitors have the opportunity to sample the foodstuffs from Twede’s Cafe or North Bend Bar and Grill? When does Rattlesnake Lake Cycles get the opportunity to impress out-of-towners with what they have to offer? I know it’s impossible to list all the local vendors in town, but I am sure you get the idea.

If we are going to have these great celebrations going on, we should feature, first and foremost, what is available in the Valley and the advantages for tourist families, coming to North Bend for the first time, to see exactly what our festival is celebrating.

Let’s discuss the parade for a few lines: I had a pretty good vantage point. I would like to commend those who walked, in that heat, some with fancy costumes, no doubt sweating like mad but with the grace to smile and wave while tossing candy to all along the parade route. Unfortunately, there were several gaps and I don’t mean that literally, but some of the signage was hard to read and some groups—I never did figure out who they were.

I also thought about several businesses that should have been there, but were not. The Mount Si Transportation group could have loaded up a shuttle or two with riders; senior citizens and anyone else who wanted to ride down North Bend Way throwing candy and waving.

I urge business owners to explore some possibilities for next year. Focus more on displaying what is here in our beautiful Valley and less on the elephant ear booths. That would be a real Festival at Mount Si!

Oh yes, and please keep the Chili Cookoff.