Concrete River Days

The parade of the 2026 Concrete River Days stepped off at 11 a.m. sharp on Saturday, July 11. It formed southbound on Mill Street in downtown Colfax, then ran south on Mill, west on Stevens, north on Main, and east onto Upton. Entries lined up first come, first served, sorted by kind: emergency vehicles, floats and other vehicles, animals and horses, walking and youth groups, and special guests. The Colfax Downtown Association and the City of Colfax led it. Candy was allowed, music was encouraged, floats were meant to be decorated, and anyone entering horses was asked to bring a poop-scoop crew.

Spring Street after the parade

When the parade cleared, the day moved to Spring Street. Local firefighters showed their skills and equipment. A bike rodeo offered riding challenges, safety tips, and free inspections and repairs to anyone who came with a bike and a helmet. The outdoor vendor fair ran from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Spring Street and in the lot next to US Bank at 101 N. Main Street, with local goods and food. The Whitman County Gazette placed the fair in the US Bank lot alone.

Elsewhere downtown, the Whitman County Library at 102 S. Main set out board games and crafts from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Colfax First Baptist, at 200 N. Mill, put up inflatable bouncy houses. The Chamber of Commerce listed them until 6 p.m., and the Gazette listed them until 2. At noon the city pool, at 1301 N. Morton Street, opened for the summer with a ribbon cutting. Live music played all day at the Palouse Brewing Taphouse, 102 N. Main, and the Gazette added music and drinks at the Fraternal Order of Eagles hall, 217 N. Main. Rubber ducks sold all day at the Chamber’s booth and at businesses around town, and the raffle drawing came at 5 p.m. at the pool.

Colfax is the county seat of Whitman County. The Chamber counts 2,846 residents. The festival belongs to the Colfax Chamber of Commerce, which calls it a community-driven effort. The Chamber names two reasons for the name: the town’s concrete river, and the memories residents keep of earlier Concrete River Days.

Ducks without a canal

The name returned in 2025. For several years before that, the festival had been called Summerfest. Rachel Schad, the Chamber’s executive director, told the Gazette that the board changed it back at a meeting early that year. “Someone just interjected and said, ‘Let’s bring it back to Concrete River Days,’” Schad said. “Everyone voted yes. And so we decided just to run with it.” The Gazette called it the event’s original name and said the event had been around for decades. The Chamber’s own page is more general, tracing the festival to “many past celebrations, including Concrete River Days, Crazy Days, and more.”

The 2025 edition lost one of its old fixtures. Flooding in the early spring left debris in the canal, and the city was told the canal could not be used. The duck racing was dropped. In its place came the rubber duck raffle, in which each duck served as a ticket for gift cards and goods from local businesses. The raffle carried over into the 2026 program.

Toffee on Main Street

The 2025 festival fell on Saturday, July 26. On the Monday before, Kelly Barnett of Colfax was painting a Main Street window for it. That Saturday opened with a cheer from the Colfax Bulldogs squad. In the parade, members of Peace Lutheran Church rode by in a boat, and the Colfax football team threw bubble gum to the crowd. Queenie Mayer, second alternate for distinguished young woman, threw candy. Children dove for toffee in the street while the crowd looked on. Christy Hughes, director of the Whitman County Library, drove a decorated van with her sons, Christopher and Micheal, and her dog, Gus, throwing candy from it.

David Buckley worked the fire department demonstration. At First Baptist, children had a race car obstacle course, basketball, bubbles, a bouncy house, and an inflatable obstacle course. The library’s magic show, with the magician Clare Voyant, moved to the church for the space, and Hughes counted about 90 people there. “It’s just a really delightful show,” she said. Her husband, Daniel, painted faces outside the library, about 40 of them in four hours. Smashed Lemonade sold custom handmade lemonade. The Lutheran church kept a comfort table with water, a bathroom, and refreshments. The Eagles held an indoor vendor fair, and a beer garden ran from 3 to 9 p.m. Colfax High School graduates of the 1980s held an all-eighties class reunion. It was also the last day the Colfax Mercantile was open.

The musician Eric E played for three hours, from pop hits to classic rock, and ran background music the rest of the day. He had driven through Colfax many times on the way to gigs, but this was his first Concrete River Days. “It’s an honor to get to play music there,” he told the Gazette.

The sesquicentennial summer and the derby

Three years earlier, the summer festival had come back after pandemic restrictions stopped large gatherings for two years. It returned on July 23 and 24, 2022, as part of the town’s 150th anniversary. Colfax grew up around a sawmill that opened in 1871 at the confluence of two branches of the Palouse River, on land James Perkins had chosen in 1870. “It’s pretty exciting, especially since every group in town is involved,” said Molly Keogh, the Chamber’s director at the time.

Mayor Jim Retzer opened the 2022 festival at 9:30 a.m. by rededicating the refurbished Lippett Fountain in Cushing Eells Park. The Colfax Arts Council then unveiled a sesquicentennial mural by the local artist Henry Stinson. A children’s parade followed at 11. The fire department set up an obstacle course, and a dunk tank let visitors try to dunk Colfax public figures. The Spring Street Vendor Market sold Indian food from Larissa’s Apron and crafts from Suzan’s Craft Corner. On its stage, the Diamond Joe Band played first, the traveling magician Cecil Lewis came on at 1 p.m., and the country singer Chad Bramlet closed at 4.

That evening the Corks & Caps wine and beer festival filled Schmuck Park, where the Seattle country artist Chance McKinney played at 7:30. The pool held an all-ages swim from 9 p.m. to midnight. On Sunday, riders picked up a “Pedal Passport” at the Perkins House, the Victorian mansion Perkins finished in 1887, and collected stamps at historic landmarks around town. “We’ve tried to bring history into everything,” Keogh said.

The festival reached past the edge of downtown in the 1990s. According to the Palouse Empire Fair’s history, a demolition derby was held in conjunction with Colfax Concrete River Days in July 1993 and drew 1,500 spectators its first year. By 1997 the July derby drew more than 4,000.