Ephrata turns out big for Sage-n-Sun

There are some things Ephrata is sort of short on: high crime, traffic, crowds. But two things the Grant County seat has in abundance are sunshine and sagebrush. So it’s only fitting that the biggest community celebration of the year is named for those elements.

This weekend, for the 106th time, the town gathered at the courthouse lawn for the Sage-n-Sun festival. About 5,000 people showed up, estimated event president Michelle Clark. For a town of 7,664 according to the 2010 census, that’s not a bad turnout at all.

“Friday was good, a little better than last year,” said Bob Muchlinski of RGB Music, who manned the booth and made the announcements for the festival. The festival carried over into Sunday for the first time in a few years, he said, and that presented some challenges. But it was nothing that couldn’t be solved with a little ingenuity.

One major change this year was the timing of the festival. Traditionally, Sage-n-Sun has been held in June, but this year the date was moved to August to coincide with the Babe Ruth Baseball World Series, which also took place in Ephrata. The two events dovetailed in a number of ways, Clark said, including exchanging announcements from each other’s sound booths and integrating the competing teams into the Grand Parade.

The festival kicked off Friday at noon, with live music beginning at 5 p.m. The parade inaugurated the festivities at 11 a.m., with classic cars, fire trucks and police cars, a motorcycle drill team and several political candidates, among other displays. The parade started at the courthouse and returned ready to dig into the plethora of offerings served by food and beverage vendors. There was a face painter, a bouncy house and blacksmith Kyle Leslie demonstrating his craft to a fascinated audience.

Saturday evening saw local residents showing their stuff with a talent show that featured 12 entries. The youth winner was Bella Francoeur, who performed “Adore,” by Jasmine Thompson. The adult winner, whose name wasn’t available at press time, performed a beautiful rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” from the musical “Carousel,” according to Muchlinski. “She really nailed it,” he said.

Sunday’s entertainment proved a little more difficult for the coordinators, as they found themselves with about two and a half hours with no entertainment scheduled. Muchlinski was equal to the challenge, however. He phoned some friends who were regulars at karaoke, and they each took three or four songs to fill in.

Changing the date affected the event somewhat, Muchlinski said, because August has so many competing events to line up vendors for. This was the second weekend of the Watershed Festival at the Gorge, which he said may have drawn participants away as well.

Nevertheless, Sage-n-Sun was a huge success, Clark, said, and she credits RBG Music and the Sage-n-Sun board members Orvella Fields and John and Jeanette Cole. “They’re volunteers extraordinaire,” she said. “If it were not for them this festival would not happen.”