With just a few weeks until the Covington Days Festival set for July 20-21 the plans for the event are falling into place according to Karla Slate, the city’s community relations coordinator.
The city of Covington picked up the torch of planning the festival, which began in the mid 1980s, from the Covington Lions Club earlier this year. Since then, Slate and other city staffers have worked to bring on new sponsors, new vendors, add elements to the event as well as finalize a different parade route. Slate wrote in an email interview that things are going well.
“Our business community is being very supportive,” Slate wrote. “We’ve offered sponsorships on various events and activities within the festival versus offering the typical sponsorship levels and our sponsors have been very enthusiastic about it. Some of our sponsors are even going to be involved during the event. For example, the Washington State Fair — formerly the Western Washington Fair in Puyallup — is the presenting sponsor of our popular watermelon eating contest. They are going to be hands-on providing watermelons, prizes, and even costumed characters.”
Slate noted she is excited about the festival programming this year. In addition to event staples such as the Council Challenge, the watermelon eating contest and on stage entertainment there will be carnival games, a rock climbing wall, a kids fitness festival, geocaching, a family night and more, all thanks to festival sponsors.
Meanwhile, the parade route is finalized, with the staging and start at Real Life Church. It will then head south on 180th Avenue Southeast, turn west onto Southeast 272nd Street then proceed to 169th Place Southeast, just west of the Kohl’s parking lot, which will be the site of the festival.
“The parade will result in temporary road closures starting about 9:30 a.m. and lasting no later than 1 p.m.,” Slate wrote. “We are working very hard to ensure the inconvenience is minimal to residents and businesses in the surrounding area.
In the meantime, there are still a few details to finalize, Slate wrote. There is still a need for volunteers for a variety or tasks. And there is still room for some specific types of booths.
“Our commercial spots are already full,” Slate wrote. “It was great to get so much interest by the business community, but we want to ensure that the festival also provides a great venue for local arts and crafters to promote their craft. We sill have spaces available for community non-profit groups and food vendors, too. There are some returning vendors, however, most of our confirmed vendors are actually new to Covington Days and we have a nice variety so far.”
As the date approaches for Covington Days, Slate wrote, she encourages people to keep up to date via the Internet.
“We are constantly updating the festival website, posting updates and adding news,” she wrote.
Log on to www.covington.wa.gov/covingtondays for more information.
