Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
MASON COUNTY FOREST FESTIVAL
Octavia Johnson, 5, of Shelton enjoys the slide during the Mason County Forest Festival Carnival on June 1. The 79th annual festival brought thousands of people into downtown Shelton. Event organizers said all events were well-attended.
Children wave flags as they watch the Paul Bunyan Grand Parade Saturday on West Railroad Avenue in downtown Shelton.
The 79th Forest Festival saw sunny skies and lots of smiles after four days of activities in downtown Shelton.
Forest Festival Board President Mick Sprouffske said the weekend was great.
"I believe the crowds were real large and seemed to be happy with the event," Sprouffske said. "Unfortunately, I don't get down to the parade so just judging from what I've heard from others and the photos that come through Facebook and the photos that one of our sponsors, Cooper Studios, has supplied, I think there's 170 photos they put on the Facebook page just of the parade itself. The car show was well-attended, the carnival had a great year. The attendance must have been the highest we're had. When you have nice weather and all four days at the carnival is open, that's to be expected and of course, the fireworks were just amazing. That's the best and we were told that it was going to be the best show that we've had here and they proved that."
After last year's cloudy and rainy weather during Forest Festival weekend, Sprouffske said the nice weather all weekend was awesome.
Sprouffske ran the logging show Saturday at Loop Field. Erin Cramsey won the women's competition with 33 points, one point ahead of second-place Kate Page. In the men's competition, Nate Hodges won with 206, 26 people were from out of town, including some from Wheaton, Illinois. There were 91 participants for the 2-mile run, 57 for the 7-mile walk, 28 in the 7-mile run, 11 in the junior jog and four people in the "senior stretch." The oldest entry was 89 years old and the youngest was 2.
Sprouffske said there is nothing yet that he thinks will change for next year. The festival board met Wednesday to discuss the event, go over reports and see whether anything needs to be done differently for the 80th Forest Festival.
"The overall event seemed to go well. It's a team effort from everybody on all of our committees, the community, the city of Shelton and city staff, Public Works, parks department and the Mason County PUD, they help us in a few aspects. They help us down at the log show, they help us with the fiber connection for the internet at Loop Field and at Evergreen Square so the broadcast can be livestreamed. I can't tell you how much I appreciate living in small-town America. It is just so nice, having grown up here and getting to know everybody, not everybody has grown up here. We have a lot of newcomers and a lot of our volunteers are newcomers. Everyone works well together."
While the Forest Festival weekend is complete, the Forest Festival royalty will be busy this summer at parades, culminating with the SeaFair parade July 29 in Seattle.
There is one more event, the Royalty Tea Party at 11 a.m. July 9 at the Colonial House in downtown Shelton.
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