Put it on and they will come:
Marysville and festivals; and how did we let another Gold Sox season go by so quickly?
Our experience in Marysville: put on a festival, and they will come... a lot of them. We’re a town that turns out for parades and fests of all sorts.
Maybe it’s that the community’s residential areas are intermingled with business areas, and public events are sort of naturally attended. Maybe it’s the festival attitude that the folks in the area groom ... hey, why not have a good time? Or maybe so many people just love to see other people that it’s bound to be a success.
Regardless, this week brings us the 20th annual Peach Festival. The downtown is blocked off, there are plenty of brick and mortar businesses open extra hours, dozens and dozens of vendors set up in the street, bands are playing and there is food all over the place, especially featuring: Peaches! And it’s free.
Annually, it draws one of the area’s biggest crowds.
Among the homegrown entertainments is to be a Marysville vs. Yuba City pie eating contest that would have featured mayors vying for the championship... but for some reason last minute stand-ins were named: council members Bruce Buttacavoli serves as standard bearer for Marysville and Manny Cardoza takes up the gauntlet for Yuba City. That’s worth the price of admission, right there.
Organizers are looking to expand the festival a bit every year, but are trying to remain faithful to the event’s roots – that means something peachy in every booth, emphasis on the gathering of family and friends, and accommodation of the brick and mortar businesses that make up the downtown all year long.
The festival starts at 4 p.m. Friday and music plays from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, there’s a pancake breakfast by the Silver Dollar from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. and a 5k race at 8 a.m. The festival opens at 10 a.m.; music starts at 1 p.m., the pie eating contest is at 1:30 p.m., winners of awards are announced at 2 p.m.; and music and fun continues until 10 p.m.
It’s a good feeling to get out and about for some community socializing and the Peach Festival is a good venue. (But wear a hat and some lotion – it will be sunny and warm this weekend.)
* How did we let the season slip by so quickly? We didn’t make it to nearly enough Gold Sox games, but the ones we attended were lots of fun... sitting outside on a nice evening, joking with friends, having a dog and a beer, watching people do the chicken dance and the YMCA routine, listening to the peculiar sounds of the venerable horn section, and seeing some fine play on the field ....
We’re glad that an owners group was put together and successfully operated a quality season of baseball, in cooperation with the city of Marysville and sponsors. We’re hoping the club had enough financial success to continue in years to come.
There are four more regular season games at the Colusa Casino Stadium in Marysville – at 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and at 1 p.m. Sunday. Fireworks are on the bill for after the game Saturday. We’d like to see the place packed with local fans for the close of the season and we have a slug of tickets to give away – good for general admission for any regular season game. First come, first serve.
Comment with your name and how many tickets you’d like (up to six). We’ll give them out until we run out. Watch for a comment to your comment. Tickets have to be picked up at the Appeal front office at 1530 Ellis Lake Drive, Marysville, from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. at 5 p.m. Any not handed out by noon Friday go back into the hat.
Our View editorials represent the opinion of the Appeal-democrat and its editorial board and are edited by the publisher and/or editor. Members of the editorial board include: Publisher Glenn Stifflemire and Editor Steve Miller.