MOSES LAKE — The Downtown Moses Lake Association will review its plans for 2025 and its schedule of events during its annual public meeting, tentatively scheduled for early February. The date will be determined during the annual DMLA board member retreat this weekend. 

Some events are already on the schedule, starting with the first two months of Coffee & Conversation, usually on the first Friday of every month. It features someone from the community – a business, a nonprofit, an agency – with an interesting story to tell.  

January was pushed back to the second Friday due to the holiday week. The guest speaker will be Matthew Payne of Soup on Saturdays. It’s a nonprofit whose volunteers make soup each Saturday for people at the Open Doors sleep center. 

Coffee & Conversation is from 8:30 to 10 a.m. at Mason’s Place, 102 E. Third Ave. – which, by the way, is right downtown. There’s coffee, of course, and a chance to ask questions of the speaker, 

The February guest speaker will be Moses Lake School District officials who will be talking about the district’s upcoming educational programs and operations levy. That’s scheduled for Feb. 7. 

Mallory Miller, DMLA executive director, said some events on the 2025 schedule are already set, while the dates for others will be announced following the leadership retreat.  

Miller said downtown features new and longtime restaurants, clothing shops, coffee shops, art spaces, antique stores, all kinds of retail shops that people might not know are there. The DMLA events give people a chance to come downtown and see what’s there, she said.

Events are scheduled throughout the year to bring people downtown, starting with Brews & Tunes on March 15.  

It will be the eighth year for Brews & Tunes, which features live performances by local musicians hosted by participating businesses. Regional breweries, distilleries and cideries provide samples of their wares to go with the music. There’s also food and street vendors.

The date for Family Picnic Day will be announced, but it will be sometime in June.  

“Because we had such a success with it last year, we’re bringing it back.” Miller said.  

The picnic features – well, food vendors, but also games for children, an obstacle course and other activities. The 2024 picnic included a car show. The goal is to sponsor a community activity that gives children something to do, Miller said in an earlier interview. 

The annual Sip & Stroll is scheduled for Sept. 13; it’s held jointly with the annual Moses Lake Care Fair and Art on Third sponsored by Columbia Basin Allied Arts.  

Sip & Stroll features regional wineries, and possibly some cideries and distilleries, who set up shop in participating businesses. It also features live music in some businesses, and a couple of car clubs showed off the results of their handiwork in 2024. 

The Harvest Festival will be Oct. 25. It’s a trick-or-treat walk, with downtown filled with space creatures, cartoon characters, dinosaurs and steampunk characters, among many others.  

The date of the annual lighting of the community holiday tree will be announced. The tree lighting kicks off the holiday season with everything from games for children and a scavenger hunt through participating businesses to hot cocoa.  

The annual Ag Parade is scheduled for Dec. 5. Tractors and farm equipment, fire trucks and police vehicles, regular cars and trucks – and much else, including horses and dancers – are decked out in bright lights and make their way down Third Avenue.  

    A vintner pours wine for a customer at Sip & Stroll 2024, sponsored by the Downtown Moses Lake Association.
  

    Children dance to the music at the 2024 tree lighting sponsored by the Downtown Moses Lake Association.