Battle Ground’s Harvest Days festival will return Thursday, July 18, through Saturday, July 20, with a full schedule of events.
The central location for events during Harvest Days will be the southeast portion of Battle Ground High School. The area will include the main stage, a vendor fair, a carnival, the Fun Fest Bounce-N-Battle and more.
Harvest Days kicks off on Thursday, July 18, with the Mini Midway Carnival at Battle Ground High School from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. It will be open from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday, July 20.
On Friday, the Harvest Nights Car Cruise kicks off at 6 p.m. and lasts until 10 p.m. The cruise is open for special interest vehicles from the 1990s and older. There will be no pre-registration, but the cruise will cost $30, cash only, to enter. Signups begin at 3 p.m. at the Battle Ground High School parking lot off of North Parkway Avenue. Cars can begin staging in the parking lot after the registration fee is paid. The parking lot will be open to the public to view the cars prior to the 6 p.m. cruise down Main Street.
“No burnouts. That will be strictly enforced,” Kendra Laratta, with the Battle Ground Festivals Association, said. “The police are going to have their drone up watching for some of that stuff and keeping an eye out for safety issues this year. We just want everyone to have a safe time and a good time.”
At around 5 p.m., about an hour prior to the cruise, Main Street is set to close at Southwest Seventh Avenue and to the east toward Grace Avenue. Traffic on Main Street will be directed onto Southeast First Street. Main Street is expected to open to traffic following the conclusion of the cruise.
Festivities on Saturday, July 15, will kick off from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. with the Fire District 3 pancake breakfast. The pancake breakfast will be located at Battle Ground High School.
The Harvest Days Parade will go down Main Street from 10 a.m. to noon. Parade categories can be found on the Battle Ground Festivals website. The categories include floats, big trucks, bands, automobile clubs, equestrian and more.
“One of the changes is all the candy must be contained in wagons with the walker so there’s no going back and forth to the vehicles and back to get more candy or whatnot,” Laratta said. “That’s a bit of a change this year for us, and it’s just a safety issue after some of the things that have happened. We just want to eliminate people coming to moving vehicles and moving away from them.”
The vendor fair, which will be featuring local hand-crafted goods, will begin at 11 a.m. and run until 6 p.m. on Saturday. Vendors are set to offer products such as candles, jewelry, plants, clothes, wooden art, crystals and more.
Also starting at 10 a.m. will be the Vintage BMX bike show and swap meet. The BMX bike show will be located near the skate park, with parking available at the Little League fields and west parking lot at the Battle Ground Community Center. The bike show will conclude at 3 p.m.
The Firefighter’s Challenge will begin at 11 a.m. and finish at 2 p.m. at the high school. The Bounce-N-Battle, separate from the carnival, will begin at 1 p.m. and conclude at 5 p.m. at the high school. A part of the Fun Fest, the Bounce-N-Battle is not just for kids, according to the Battle Ground Festivals’ Facebook page. Wristbands can be purchased with cash only.
Main Stage entertainment, including the popular talent show, is set to kick off at 12:30 p.m. and run until 6 p.m.
New this year, a 4x4 vehicle show will take place from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Battle Ground High School parking lot off of North Parkway Avenue.
“In the past we’ve had trucks trying to get in the cruise and things like that, and it’s just a different group, and we wanted to put on our first [4x4 show] this year to see how it goes,”
Battle Ground City Councilor and festivals committee member Shane Bowman said. “We’re going to have competitions. We will have five categories, and it’s mostly based on your vehicle with what the judges are looking for in each category.”
There will be categories for SUV, truck, UTV high school student and an unlimited category. There will be a flex ramp to test vehicles at the show, as well. A canned food donation is required to use the ramp, and the show entry fee for participating 4x4 vehicles will cost $20, cash only.
The grand finale of Harvest Days will include a fireworks show from 10 p.m. to around 10:30 p.m. on Saturday.
A map showing where to watch the fireworks will be posted on the Battle Ground Festivals Facebook page. For more information regarding Harvest Days, visit the Facebook page or visit battlegroundfestivals.com.
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