Save The Date For Waitsburg Parade & Dayton Days

WAITSBURG - There may not be any state-sanctioned horse racing in the Touchet Valley this year, but keep the last two weekends in May clear on your calendar to be in Waitsburg and Dayton because lots of events are in store for those dates.

On the traditional Days of Real Sport weekend of May 21, Waitsburg will host its Saturday Main Street parade, have a farmers market at Preston Park throughout most of the day, stage afternoon activities around town and close the day with a livemusic street dance at the end of Main Street.

Meanwhile, Dayton Days will happen the following weekend with everything but the races and with rodeo events making up for parimutuel betting.

"We're going to progress forward with everything," said Shane Laib, manager of the Columbia County Fair, which has assumed oversight of Dayton Days with Dayton Days volunteers supporting the many planned activities.

The fair board in Dayton and the Commercial Club along with the city in Waitsburg have stepped forward to take a lead role in sponsoring and helping organize the two May weekends, so regular Days of Real Sport and Dayton Days organizers can save their financial resources for a possible resumption of racing in 2012.

"We just wanted to make sure that we keep that date on people's calendars," said Robbie Johnson, president of the Commercial Club.

Laib agreed.

" You can't shutter an event like Dayton Days and expect people to come back the following year," he said. "We'll probably still need to do quite a bit of marketing when the sound of hooves returns to the Touchet Valley (in 2012)."

But even without the races, there will be plenty of hooves in the valley next month.

Dubbed the "Waitsburg Parade," the town's morning tradition will include many of the usual annual riders, horse-drawn wagons and other floats traditionally stopping here for the Main Street pageant that morning on their way to Spokane's Lilac Parade later in the day.

Ribbons will be available for the winners. Veteran parade coordinator Gail Wolfe has agreed to put this year's parade together.

The day will be a joint venture of the Commercial Club and the City of Waitsburg. The morning is expected to start with the usual cowboy breakfast - this year at the Town Hall. After the 10 a.m. parade, organizers plan to stage morning and afternoon events, including a farmer's market (like last year's Wait's Market at Cycle Oregon) starting at 10 a.m. in Preston Park and possibly kids games. A stage may be set up for music in the park. The Frog Hollow Band will be invited to play for the street dance.

It's not clear whether the Saturday parade will be preceded by a coronation on Friday. Organizers haven't yet decided on a court, but they agreed that if there is a court, it need not be a (horse) mounted court, potentially opening the field of candidates for the function to nonriders,

Johnson said.

The weekend after the Waitsburg Parade, Dayton Days will definitely have a court and plenty of hooves for Jackpot and other rodeo events on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and evenings at the Fairgrounds (Memorial Day Weekend).

The three-day event will have kids' games, entertainment, vendors and the traditional beer garden. Dayton Days will start with the Friday night coronation at the Pavilion, Laib said.

Not all details of the May weekends in Waitsburg and Dayton have been decided so the activities may still evolve and change.

Both communities have been scrambling for alternatives since the Washington Horse Racing Commission announced in February that all six racing days it could afford to sponsor this year are going to Sun Downs in

Kennewick.

For a while, a private, white knight sponsor was rumored to be stepping forward with funds to support the local races, which would have required a change in state law now banning such an arrangement. No one came forward, and at the end of March, it became apparent that racing was definitely sidetracked for 2011.

With changes in state law and local fundraising, horse racing may well be revived next year, organizers have said.