Camas Days

Six blocks and Birch Street

For two days in late July, vendor booths fill six city blocks of downtown Camas with handmade crafts, gifts, and food. On the 2026 schedule they ran from ten in the morning until eight at night. Food booths take Birch Street between Third and Fourth avenues, serving what the Camas-Washougal Chamber of Commerce calls “traditional festival fair favorites.” The next block of Birch, between Fourth and Fifth, holds the beer and wine garden. At Dallas and Fourth, Kids Street sets up a 50-foot inflatable slide, an obstacle course, and games. The festival itself is free. The beer garden charges at the door, and food and some activities carry their own prices.

The 2026 edition, which the Camas-Washougal Post-Record described as the 50th anniversary, fell on Friday, July 24, and Saturday, July 25. Friday opened with the Kids Parade at 12:15 p.m. Children began lining up at 10:30 in front of the Camas Library, and the program thanked the Assistance League of Southwest Washington. At the 2019 Kids Parade a stilt walker worked the crowd. Friday evening the beer garden opened from five until eleven for those 21 and over, with The Sarah Lodge Band and River Divide on stage and pours from the North Bank Brewers Guild and Odom Corp. On Saturday the garden opened at two, admitted minors until five, and booked The Light Fantastic, the Andrew Matthews Band, and River Divide again.

The weekend ran past its two billed days. On Sunday, July 26, an annual softball tournament played from eight in the morning until seven at night. The Downtown Camas Association held Picnic in Color, a free family arts-and-crafts event, on Cedar Street between Fourth and Fifth. The Ducky Derby drawing took place there at noon. Both Clark County Today and the Post-Record put the festival’s crowd at about 15,000 a year.

Iron tubs past City Hall

The Grand Parade steps off Saturday at eleven. In 2026 it was billed as celebrating 50 years of Camas Days. The 2025 parade, themed “Broadway Comes to Camas,” gives a fair picture of a typical line of march. Classic cars rolled down Northeast Fourth Avenue. The Camas High School marching band played, and dancers from Virtuosity Dance at VEGA performed. Addiction Powersports Northwest sent a row of utility terrain vehicles, and Lucky the duck, mascot of the Camas Ducky Derby, waved from the route. The Flyit Academy’s float, “The Fly-in King,” a pun on The Lion King, took an award, and TSMC entered a Willy Wonka float. The Shriners appear in every parade. One was photographed racing down the street in 2024, and in 2025 Stretch The Clown drove the route.

The bathtub races follow. In 2024 Clark County Today placed them immediately after the grand parade, and the 2026 schedule set them for 1:30 p.m. in front of City Hall, featuring the Camas and Washougal city councils. The tubs are heavy iron. They spend the year in a storage facility and must be pushed and pulled across town before each festival. Photographs survive of the races in 2007. On July 26, 2025, a team called the Utterly Unstoppable Lactose Legends sprinted to victory.

From the Paper Festival to a fiftieth

Downtown Camas has held parades for its mill before. The Downtown Camas Association records that the Camas mill, then Crown Zellerbach, once staged a downtown Paper Festival with games for the community and a parade. One of its floats carried the sign “Camas Paper Wraps the World.”

The Camas Washougal Chamber of Commerce started the Camas Days Celebration in 1974. The beer and wine garden followed in the early 1980s, and an official Camas Days poster dates from 1996. The parade later turned back to the mill. For the 44th annual Camas Days, by the Downtown Camas Association’s count, the theme was “Celebrating Papermaker History.” That same year the association introduced Picnic in Color as a new event.

Other traditions grew up around the festival. The GFWC Camas-Washougal Women’s Club names a Camas Days Senior Royal Court. Nominees must be 55 or older, live in Camas or Washougal, be active in the community, and have a record of local volunteer service. On Wednesday, July 12, 2017, Nan Henriksen received her crown as queen at the club’s Royal Coronation.

In May 2020 the chamber announced on Facebook that it was canceling Camas Days, scheduled for July 24 and 25. The Post-Record counted it as the 46th annual. The chamber canceled its businessperson and citizen of the year recognition along with it. The festival returned on July 22 and 23, 2022, after a two-year pause.

The 2024 festival, held July 26 and 27, took the theme “America the Beautiful.” Its grand marshal was Brent Erickson, honored for 20 years of organizing Camas Days. He had served 24 years on the Camas Parks Board and 14 as a volunteer firefighter, and before retiring he was the chamber’s executive director. That year more than 100 craft and commercial vendors signed on, along with 16 food vendors and a new section for young entrepreneurs. The Caddies and the Beth Willis Band played.

Two people at the chamber

By 2026 the chamber had two employees, and they organize the whole festival. Jennifer Senescu is the executive director and also sits on the Camas City Council. Samantha Horner works part time. Horner told the Post-Record that the two plan the festival over six months while carrying their regular duties.

“People love this festival. They say it’s the best festival we do,” Horner said. “They have no idea that Jen and I are behind the scenes scrambling. That’s such a compliment to me because I’m like ‘Really? We pulled it off!’”