Street party
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 4 months AGO
Schoolchildren walk in the Youth Parade to kick off the 2024 Sage-N-Sun Festival. This year’s festival is June 13-14.
FILE PHOTO
Friends gather in the beer garden for some shade, an adult beverage and a few laughs during last year’s Sage-N-Sun festival.
Retro band Outta Control will be among the performers for “Take Back the Tracks” Friday at Sage-N-Sun in Ephrata.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | June 5, 2025 1:00 AM
EPHRATA — There are a few new things at the Ephrata Sage-N-Sun Festival this year.
“We’re bringing back our 3-on-3 basketball tournament,” said Brittney MacLeod, director of the Ephrata Chamber of Commerce. “We’re adding a Kid Zone, which will include a dunk tank. There’s a petting zoo and a couple of different things for kids to do.”
The basketball tournament, which will run both Friday and Saturday, has been on hiatus for a number of years, MacLeod said.
“We’re excited to bring it back and add a youth aspect to draw families downtown and keep them downtown for the weekend,” she said.
Sage-N-Sun is one of the oldest institutions in Grant County, having started out as the Sagebrush Olympics 115 years ago. The two-day festival will take over downtown Ephrata in front of the courthouse, MacLeod said, with 10 food vendor booths and about 30 craft vendors.
The festival actually kicks off Thursday, June 12, with the youth parade.
“It’s great,” MacLeod said. “The schools bring all the kids down and they get to walk in the parade. All of our youth sports kids walk through the parade. It’s always fairly busy.”
Live music is a big part of Sage-N-Sun. Friday’s theme is “Take Back the Tracks,” with bands reliving the 1970s-90s. Outta Control takes the stage first, followed by Mad Moxie and headliner Altered ’90s.
Saturday morning starts bright and early with the 35th annual fun run. Registration begins at 6:45 a.m. at Ephrata Middle School, and the runners take off at 7:45.
The Grand Parade starts at 11 a.m. at Ephrata High School and makes its way down C Street to Sixth Avenue Southwest, then turns and heads back up Basin Street, finishing where it started.
“The Grand Parade has been getting bigger and bigger,” MacLeod said. “It usually takes an hour for our parade to run its route.”
This year’s grand marshal is Pam Leseman, owner of Pita Pit in Moses Lake and Ephrata.
“Beyond her entrepreneurial success, Pam has dedicated herself to community service,” the Ephrata Chamber wrote on social media. “She has been deeply involved in volunteer work with the Catholic school and has served as a Make-A-Wish grantor for 11 years, helping fulfill the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses.”
Leseman grew up in the Royal City area, she said, and moved around a lot before settling with her family in Ephrata in 1990.
“I try to do whatever I can for the community,” Leseman told the Columbia Basin Herald. “When somebody needs help, or to use my building, whatever I could do.”
Saturday’s musical lineup has a more countrified flavor, with a “Rock the Roots” theme. Mariachi Imperio Real starts off the performances, followed by Days of Honey, The Funk, Genevieve and wrapping up with the headliner, Copper Mountain Band.
“We’re trying to connect with our country roots for the headliners on Saturday,” MacLeod said. “We had a really good turnout and really good feedback from our headliners last year.”
“It’s a great festival,” Leseman said. “They go all out with it to make a family fun time.”
Friends gather in the beer garden for some shade, an adult beverage and a few laughs during last year’s Sage-N-Sun festival.
Retro band Outta Control will be among the performers for “Take Back the Tracks” Friday at Sage-N-Sun in Ephrata.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Endless battle
Noxious Weed Control Board works to keep invasive plants under control
MOSES LAKE — Some of the nastiest plants in Grant County were the topic of a class led by Jay Johnson, a consultant with the Grant County Noxious Weed Control Board, Tuesday. The Noxious Weed Control Board, as its name would suggest, is tasked with keeping weeds under control in Grant County. That’s not a small job; the board’s website lists 129 species of noxious weeds that are found around Grant County. A noxious weed is defined as an invasive, non-native plant that threatens agricultural crops, local ecosystems or fish and wildlife habitat, according to the Noxious Weed Control Board. Washington state law requires that these weeds be identified and their spread kept to a minimum, if not completely eradicated. “We’re one of those agencies a lot of people don’t really understand,” Johnson said. “We’re a county office and … our funding is tax-based assessment. When you get your tax bill and you look down at all the expenses that you pay for, there we are.”
BASIN EVENTS: Oct. 16-24
COLUMBIA BASIN — Whether you feel like shopping, crafting, learning or seeing a show, there’s something happening for you this week in the Basin. Oct. 16 ‘My Family (Mi Familia)’ screening Spanning three generations, “My Family (Mi Familia)” is a heartfelt drama that follows the Sánchez family as they build their lives in East Los Angeles. Through love, hardship, triumph, and sacrifice, the film explores the immigrant experience, the strength of family bonds, and the traditions that connect one generation to the next. Lowrider show and taco truck before the screening. Sponsored by Columbia Basin Allied Arts, EDUBS C/S and the Moses Lake Creative District. $12 per person. Doors open at 6 p.m., film begins at 7 p.m. at the Moses Lake Civic Center Auditorium, 401 S. Balsam St. Tickets and info: www.cba-arts.org.
Moses Lake author encourages women to look beyond church culture norms
MOSES LAKE — A Moses Lake author’s book, “A Christian Woman Striving to Live Her Faith in a Man-Controlled World,” takes aim at the role to which many churches relegate the female half of their congregations. “It’s to encourage women in the faith,” Linda Curran said. “A lot of churches say, ‘Teach Sunday school, do this, do that, but don’t (evangelize.)’" In her book, Curran recounts a time when she moved to a new community and joined a church there. She was surprised to learn that, as a new female member, she had been automatically assigned church cleaning duties. When she questioned it, she wrote, she was met with condescension and her objections were brushed aside. In other churches, she said, women who were capable of teaching were relegated to “women’s ministry.”