Renton River Days 2011

Once a year towards the end of July the City of Renton takes a week to throw a big festival that celebrates our community. There are all kinds of activities during the week. Arts and crafts, food, live music, contests, treasure hunts, chalk art, and a rubber ducky derby. This was our 26th year.

I love the Renton River Days Parade. It's a great reminder of how many wonderful people, businesses, and institutions we have here.

It’s a time to have some good old fashioned small town Americana fun!

It’s not a super polished professional contest oriented parade. It’s when we get together to celebrate our young and old (and everyone in between) who makeup our citizenry. I enjoy it all, and I especially look forward to watching all of the great kids we have in this city of ours who get involved in theater, art, music, dance, sports, martial arts, scouts, and other activities.

As a community it’s our opportunity to give a rousing applause of thanks to our local Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, and our cities police, fire, and emergency services. It’s a time for cub scouts to march in their first parade, and drill teams to show us their new routines. High school cheer leaders and marching bands remind us football is near and drum and bugle cores with blasting brass and snappy drum cadences sync us in time and step.

This year’s parade was almost 2 hours long. It was fun from beginning to end and as always it was great to see old favorites like the Seafair Clowns and Pirates, antique cars and trucks, and the many local businesses who generously give back to the community.

We’re not the small town of 12,000 people we used to be when I was growing up in the 50’s and 60’s, when almost everyone worked for Boeing or PACCAR. Renton’s population is now over 90,000 and the business community is quite diverse including Wizards of the Coast, IKEA, the Federal Aviation Administration regional headquarters, Fry’s Electronics, Valley Medical Center, TOPICS Entertainment, several dot com companies, and the Seattle Seahawks HQ and training facility.

There are several empty storefronts along the parade route this year. A poignant reminder that the current recession challenges us, especially our small businesses. Yet, today, spirits are high. We celebrate who we are, what we do, and embrace the diversity of people and cultural backgrounds that make us uniquely Renton.

Renton River Days 2011

This year’s theme was “The Magic Continues”... How apropos!
Many thanks to all the generous sponsors who make this festival an annual event.