Organizers expect 20,000 for four-day festival

MOSES LAKE — Get ready for both a mouthful and an earful at McCosh Park this week, with a four-day food and music festival organizers say could bring as many as 20,000 hungry people to pig out in the park.

Starting in just a few days, the sights and sounds and aromas filling the park will have organizers hoping for a park full of people pigging out. The four-day Pig Out in McCosh Park kicks off Thursday with food and shopping booths, and a series of concerts in the park's Centennial Amphitheater.

The event is being promoted by Bill Burke of Spokane, who annually puts on Spokane's Pig out in the Park.

Moses Lake's "Pig out" kicks off at 10 a.m. Thursday, with food and market booths filling the park from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. The musical concerts at the parks' Centennial Amphitheater begin at noon each day, with bands playing through the day and into the night.

"Pig out" is being organized by the Six Bridges Arts Association and in cooperation with the Grant County Tourism Commission and the city of Moses Lake.

About 25 food vendors have signed on for the festival, serving 125 menu items. An adult beverage garden and public market featuring a number of arts and crafts booths will also be taking over the park.

"We're pumped, we're excited. It looks like we're going to have good weather," said city parks and recreation director Spencer Grigg. "I think people are going to have a good time."

Earlier this year, the city authorized Burke to use McCosh Park for the festival over the four days. Burke has been working with the city on marketing for the last several years, and Grigg said if anyone can put on an event like "Pig Out" it is Burke.

Buzz for the event has already begun, and Burke is promoting it as a free park event with reasonably-priced food and 19 concerts featuring both local bands and national musical acts like 1950s Do-Wop group Sha Na Na and Santana tribute Caravanserai. The festival has been marketed heavily around Grant County, with more than 15,000 fliers distributed throughout the region alongside a number of radio and newspaper spots.

Burke has been running around the Columbia Basin in recent weeks, trying to finalize plans for the festival. He had previously estimated the festival will bring somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 people to the park over the course of the week.

"I think we're going to do 20,000 people," Burke said, "I think we'll see the majority of our audience on Saturday."

And as the event will be free for four days Burke said it will be interesting to see not only the number of people who come to the park, but also the number of times those people come to pig out.

"I think Moses Lake will be seeing an event they've never had before, and have so much fun they won't know what to do," Grigg said. "It's a pretty good problem to have."