Sage-N-Sun festival accentuates Ephrata community

Residents line streets to watch festival parade

EPHRATA — Ephrata residents and their Basin neighbors lined the streets downtown Saturday morning, eager to take in the sights of a longtime community event.

The weekend marked the 98th year of the annual Sage-N-Sun Festival.

Festivities included entertainment from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Coordinator Candy Erickson said the turnout was excellent for a pre-parade Saturday morning.

She pointed to the presence of the Tenino precision motorcycle drill team and the Christian Motorcycle Association and the Cruize to Oasis car show as assets.

"Everybody really seems to be having a good time down here," Erickson said. "I really want everybody to know how much I appreciate our team. It's community which makes this work, because this is a community festival. We are strictly community, we highlight the community kids, the community entertainment."

Former Ephrata resident and Ephrata High School graduate Jonathan Barr was back in town to perform Western and pop music with his daughter Hannah Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Barr currently resides in Ellensburg.

"I've been here for 10 years, 12 years," Barr said. "Candy keeps asking me out and I always have fun. I feel older now, but I love my hometown. I'd still live here if there was a way possible."

Ephrata sisters Debbie and Karen Barrett live across the street from the parade, which took place at 11 a.m. and traveled around Basin Street and C Street Southwest in front of the Grant County Courthouse and Grant County Public Utilities District buildings.

"We just walk right over and get the front row seat," Debbie said. "It's fun, something to do."

The siblings attend every year, but this was the first time for their father Don, who was also in attendance.

"I like a parade," Don said.

The sisters agreed the event is good for the town.

Ephrata resident Inell Finney came out for lunch at the Ephrata Senior Center.

"The high school's been marching in front of my house for a month," she said. "My dog runs out to the fence and watches them. He likes the sound."

Finney sat out in front of the center with a number of friends, waiting for the parade to start.

"It's fun," Finney said. "We have a lot of friends we commune with. I like anything to do with the children or animals. There are some really cute ones who come through."

It was the first time to the event for Finney's fellow senior center parade watcher, Soap Lake resident Emery Anderson. He was along at the request of his girlfriend, longtime Ephrata resident Hazel Catlow.

"Because my girlfriend made me," Anderson declared, to the delight of his compatriots. "She's a very believable person. She said, 'You're in your second childhood, you need to come here and clap for the parade.'"

Catlow said she's lived in Ephrata for "80-some years."

George resident Heather Hernandez knew people in the parade.

"I know all my friends, and it's a good place to just come hang out for the day," she said.