Garibaldi Days This Weekend Blend of Live Music, Food, N. Oregon Coast History, Kids Events

Published 07/19/23 at 5:51 a.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Garibaldi, Oregon) – The little town on Tillamook Bay throws together a huge shindig this coming weekend, where food, nature, live music, beer, face painting, axe-throwing and all kinds of fun for kids and kids-at-heart bring out a whole new side. Sleepy Garibaldi, on the north Oregon coast, wakes things up with the Annual Garibaldi Days on July 21 – 23.

It's three days of interesting new ways to experience Garibaldi, with a night market, fireworks, tunes and even a water ball battle between Garibaldi Fire District and the U.S. Coast Guard. It's something visitors and locals can be a part of.

Friday's activities get started at 4 p.m. under the event tent at the Port of Garibaldi, where the night market kicks in and there's live music by the band N.E. Day Now (a clever band name if there ever was one).

Want to get a “feel” for local marine wildlife? There's the Touch Tank full of lifeforms borrowed from Tillamook Bay, put together by Tillamook Estuaries Partnership and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. That gets underway as Saturday starts at 10 a.m.

Look for a variety of vendor booths, often from the north Oregon coast.

At 11 a.m. a parade hits town. Throughout the day there's North County Blues Band performing, face painting, an axe-throwing demo, a Touch a Fire Truck on Acacia Ave., and then that ever-popular water ball challenge between Garibaldi Fire District and U.S Coast Guard. Later, the beer garden will feature Best of Both Worlds, a Van Halen cover band.

Looking for some Oregon coast mystery to dive into?

Author and historian Jerry Sutherland will be at the festival on Saturday. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., he'll be signing copies of his book and answering any questions regarding the "lost city" of Bayocean that was founded in the early 20th century on the sandy spit in Tillamook Bay. It's a fascinating story of real estate speculation mixed with dreams of utopia, all washed away by a relentless ocean.

If there's anyone who knows the history of that unusual place, it's Sutherland.

Saturday activities for the Garibaldi Days conclude with fireworks over Tillamook Bay at 10 p.m.

Sunday kicks off at 9 a.m. with a classic car show, and music with N.E. Day Now, Perry Lee Witt and Dylan Crawford.

On hand for plenty of deeper coastal experiences will be the Garibaldi Maritime Museum, Historic boathouse, Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad and the Big G Food Truck pod – all of them open all weekend.

The full event schedule is facebook.com/garibaldidays

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Andre' GW Hagestedt is editor, owner and primary photographer / videographer of Oregon Coast Beach Connection, an online publication that sees over 1 million pageviews per month. He is also author of several books about the coast.

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