This weekend will be a busy one for Redmond as two major events are being held downtown.
The Redmond Derby Days Summer Festival will be celebrating 77 years today and tomorrow at Redmond City Hall and the Redmond Arts Festival will run today through Sunday at the Redmond Town Center, with a shuttle running between the two locations.
The theme for this year’s Derby Days is “Team Redmond” and participants are invited to wear their favorite team’s apparel and participate in a wide variety of events.
Megan Worzella is the city’s events and marketing administrator and said they hope to attract both residents and people from out of town with attractions and history.
“I think it just has such a historical value in the community and we are excited each year to keep things fresh and new,” she said.
Derby Days begins today Friday with the family-friendly Derby Dash 5K Walk/Run and live music along with more than 15 food vendors, a press release from the city of Redmond said.
Trivia events, human foosball competitions and races are some of the activities planned for the weekend, Worzella said.
On Saturday there will be a breakfast at the Redmond Fire Department at Station 11 with doors opening at 8 a.m. and a suggested donation of $5 to benefit the department’s Benevolent Fund.
A highlight will be the Ben Franklin Kids’ Parade, the longest running kids’ parade in the nation.
The annual parade was started in 1940 and Redmond’s children have decorated their wheels and circled the block each year since. Kids’ Parade sign-in begins at 9 a.m. in the Opportunity Building parking lot, 8383 158th Ave., with a Redmond police officer leading the kids on their ceremonial lap at 10 a.m.
There will also be the Go Redmond Grand Parade, featuring a team of grand marshals by way of father-and-son team and Olympic track and field athletes, Joe and Jeremy Taiwo.
Keeping activities and events that are crowd favorites was important during the planning process, Worzella said, but they have also made strides to incorporate fresh ideas.
Derby Days continues all afternoon with music, the Northwest Carnival, Kids’ Races and a youth bike race, food vendors and local microbrews and wine.
The group Kalimba, The Spirit of Earth, Wind and Fire will perform at 8:30 p.m. and a fireworks display will start at 10 p.m.
Parking is available at the City Hall Parking Garage, Old Redmond Schoolhouse Community Center and Redmond Town Center. A free shuttle will run on July 8 between parking sites from 9 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.
For the Arts Festival, VALA Eastside Communications Director Marisa Mouton Provo said along with more than 90 booths, live music and vendors there will be a community art project.
This year’s featured artist is Angela Flowers, who will be coordinating a printmaking project using hand-carved potato stamps.
The potato stamps will be dipped in paint by participants who choose to take part and placed on a large canvas. Each hour the color offered for dipping will change and by the end of each day, Motuon Provo said, the collage will offer a dynamic community project.
Around 800 people each year participate in the community projects.
“I get really excited about our featured artists,” Motuon Provo said, since many people haven’t gotten to work with an artist previously. “They get to make a piece of something much larger that the community has worked on.”
Flowers was selected because VALA Eastside felt the concept of using something as common as potatoes to make art was appealing.
“We loved how it was taking a kitchen, every kitchen, item and using it to make art,” Mouton Provo said. “We felt that Angela would be a great fit to lead the community art project.”
The Arts Festival will also feature live music, artists booths, a beer and wine garden and food trucks.
The Art Festival will run from noon to 8 p.m. on today and tomorrow and from noon to 7 p.m. on Sunday.
