Salmon Festival

Wenatchee River Salmon Festival Directors Message 2018

Dear Residents and Friends in the
Communities of the Wenatchee Valley,

The 28th Anniversary of the Wenatchee River Salmon Festival is dedicated to you! Celebrating the return of the salmon to the Wenatchee River Valley is the most important local and regional nature event of the year. From the tributaries that feed Lake Wenatchee sending glacier-fed water down the valley through Plain, Leavenworth, Peshastin, Dryden, Cashmere, Monitor and into the fresh water of the stunningly beautiful Columbia River Gorge on to the Pacific Ocean, we celebrate one of the most treasured species in this wondrous natural world of the Pacific Northwest.
The Salmon Festival is all about connecting people with nature. Living in our Wenatchee Valley are some of the most inspiring and educated local natural resource specialists and recreational leaders in the world. Salmon Fest was literally spawned in 1991 by the creative thinking of fish and wildife biologists, tribal leaders, passionate public outreach educators, civic leaders, volunteers, non-profit organizations and multiple government agencies. This event brought together the shared vision of providing high quality outdoor education in a fun natural setting, promoting outdoor recreation, and sharing the cultural significance of salmon to all people who live, work, study, and play in our greater Wenatchee Valley backyard. We call it, “Edu-tainment”.
More than 3,000 elementary students will embark on a grand field trip to our Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery for School Days, September 20 and 21. High School students will receive community service credits for assisting outdoor educators as they share their knowledge of nature with the younger ones. Families and people of all ages are welcome to come spend ALL day on Saturday, September 22 to be inspired by artists and raptors, the Reptile Man and Birds of Prey, Native American Village, music and food, hands-on interactive exhibits, outdoor recreation adventures, and much more.
The Wenatchee River Salmon Festival is free!! It is yours to enjoy nature at its finest. Please come share in a Salmon Experience you will never forget!

Thank you,
Yours truly,
Corky Broaddus and Hailey Croci
Festival Directors

Entertainment Schedule

Live on the Main Stage, we proudly present The Reptile Man, Scott Petersen, from Monroe, Washington’s own Reptile Zoo. Scott, a zoologist and educator, is not a stranger to Salmon Fest. In fact, he has been with us since the beginning. He and his son, Isaac, have been a top favorite act for many years throughout the entire Pacific Northwest. They have performed and educated in more than 800 schools, multiple festivals, events and venues. You can see Scott on Disney’s nationally televised “Bill Nye-The Science Guy”, Q-13 Kids Club, Northwest Afternoon, “Watch This”, and more.

Don’t miss the opportunity to see Scott and his live cast of reptiles on stage at Hatchery Park. His programs focus on the natural sciences and teach us all about the importance of all animals in the balance of nature.

Check show times on Festival Schedule.

Saturday, September 22
Entertainment Schedule - Main Stage at Hatchery Park
 
12:00 p.m. - Welcome and Awards Ceremony
12:30 - 1:30 p.m. - Reptile Man
  2:00 - 2:45 p.m. - Music of Beau Van Winkle
  3:00 - 3:45 p.m. - Music of Brittany Jean
  4:00 - 5:00 p.m. - Reptile Man Returns!
 
At Gazebo on Hatchery’s Chinook Avenue
3:30 – 4:00  “Student Prince” cast ensemble
 
At Native American Village:
Dancing, drumming and exhibits – ALL Day
 
“Beyond the Frame-What it means to be Native” with
                      Steven Paul Judd, guest presenter
 
All Festival Activities run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Fun Fish Facts for You!

• Did you know a female spring Chinook salmon can carry more than 4,000 eggs?
• Salmon returning to the Wenatchee River travel 500 miles and over 7 dams from the Pacific Ocean to get to their place of birth here in Icicle Creek
• 150,000 visitors have enjoyed Salmon Fest during these past 19 years
• Fish can get sunburns
• Bobby Beaver and Sammy Salmon, mascots of Salmon Fest, have been hugged by 150,000 kids since the festival began in 1991
• Swimming Mayflies may shed their skin as many as 27 times!
• Caddisflies eats dead leaves and the fungi on the leaves may be a source of nutrition, much like peanut butter on bread
• Vocabulary Words to Know:
a.Redd – nest dug in gravel by female salmon to put her eggs in
b.Anadromous – fish that migrate from fresh water to salt water and back to fresh water to spawn
• The oldest known salmon is 7 years old. Count the rings on a fish scale to determine their age….much like counting the rings on a tree
• The oldest salmon fossil found is 50 million years old
• 5 to 6 million years ago salmon had fangs, weighed over 500 lbs. and were ten feet long
• The intricacies of a salmon’s genetic code insist that the salmon always faces upstream into the current, so that when it navigates to the sea it swims tail first
• When Lewis and Clark entered the lush Pacific watersheds in 1804, they discovered millions of salmon in the untamed wild Columbia River. At that time 15 to 20 million salmon lived in the pristine habitat of the mighty Columbia  
• We had 1,001 entries in this year’s student Poster Contest!
• The Salmon Fest won the “International Best Children’s Program” from the International Festival and Events Association

THANK YOU TO OUR HOSTS AND “Spawn-sors” 2018
Wenatchee River Salmon Festival
Sponsors & Community Supporters
Hosts
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
U.S.D.A. Forest Service
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
Chelan PUD
Friends of Northwest Hatcheries
Sponsors
Bio – Oregon
Bonneville Power Administration
Confluence Health
Crunch Pak
Beyond the Frame - Icicle Fund
Icicle Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited
Leavenworth Boutique
NCW Media/Leavenworth Echo
Valley Tractor & Rentals
Colville Confederated Tribes – Wenatchi’s
Inter-Tribal Educators and Exhibitors-Native Village
Waste Management