By BRIAN WALKER

Staff Writer

RATHDRUM — Whether you're having an appetite or your ears are burning for music, the sixth annual Taste of Rathdrum will await on Saturday to satisfy.

The free family festival will be at Majestic Park from noon until 9 p.m.

"The Taste of Rathdrum is our biggest event of the year," said Eric Singer, Rathdrum's parks and recreation director. "Each year we add something new to it to make it more fun for everyone."

There will be live music, food vendors, hot dog and pie-eating contests, a beer garden and kids' activities. The pie-eating contest is new.

"Our goal when we started this event six years ago was to provide an event that was enjoyable for people of all ages and our focus has been keeping it a family-oriented event," Singer said. "Our first Taste of Rathdrum was literally two vendors — a hot dog eating contest and a band.

"Early on we had very little for people to do throughout the day, but thanks to planning and outstanding support from our local businesses, we have been able to expand this event dramatically and it just keeps getting bigger and better."

The schedule includes:

- Noon — music by Christy Lee;

- 1 p.m. — beer/wine garden opens;

- 1 p.m. — hot dog eating contest;

- 2 p.m. — music by Daniel Hall;

- 3 p.m. — pie-eating contest;

- 4 p.m. — turn-in for best barbecue cookoff;

- 5:30 p.m. — barbecue-contest awards ceremony; and

- 6-9 p.m. — music by Kelly Hughes Band.

There will be several vendors offering a variety of food and refreshments, along with several non-food and informational vendors.

All-day activities include: a petting zoo, corn hole tournament, an inflatable soccer dart board, Nerf archery tag, magic show by Taylor Kyle, juggling by the Junk Drawer Troubadour, bounce houses, water slides and a splash park.