Everson-Nooksack Summer Festival

Everson City Park, at 110 S. Washington Street, holds the Everson Summer Festival: two days in July when craft and food vendors set up in the park and teams play a 3-on-3 basketball tournament there on both days. Admission is free. The City of Everson runs the festival, and it set the 2026 edition for July 10 and 11.

Everson and its sister city, Nooksack, lie in the Nooksack Valley on State Highways 544 and 9, along the Nooksack River and about nine miles from the US-Canada border. The two towns together count fewer than 3,000 people, and Visit Bellingham Whatcom County presents the festival as belonging to both. Berries, dairy cattle, carrots, potatoes, and specialty produce grow in the surrounding fields. The valley takes its name from the Nooksack Tribe, which has 2,000 enrolled members. The tribe’s ancestral homeland took in the river’s watershed, the land around Mt. Baker, the country out to Bellingham Bay, and land farther north into Canada.

Two days in the park

The Lynden Tribune printed the 2025 program, held July 11 and 12, in detail. Vendors opened at noon Friday and stayed until 8 p.m. On Saturday they ran from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Lions Club did the cooking: a BBQ dinner from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, then breakfast and BBQ from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Dakota Black played Friday evening from 6 to 8, and Charlie Partin played Saturday from noon to 2.

In the alley behind Peoples Bank, Friends of the Everson Library held its annual Summer Festival book sale from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days, offering thousands of books, DVDs and more. The proceeds go to the Friends, the nonprofit that supports the Everson McBeath Community Library. Saturday also brought the Everson Auto Parts Car Show & Shine to Lincoln Street from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Christ Fellowship ran kids games from noon to 2 p.m.

Other listings name other pieces. Visit Bellingham lists a pancake breakfast, a softball tournament, a farmers market, children’s games and local entertainment. KAFE 104.1’s notice for the 2024 festival, held July 12 and 13, added safety information stations to the basketball, music, vendors and games.

A mile down Main Street

The parade starts promptly at 11 a.m. Saturday at Nooksack Valley Middle School. It travels west along Main Street for about a mile, turns onto Park Drive, and ends at Riverside Park, which sits on the Nooksack River with BBQ stands, picnic tables and two baseball fields. Judges look over the entries before the start. Each entry chooses one of seven categories to be judged in: animal, community, commercial, auto, farm, musical, or kids. Awards are announced during the parade.

Harry Anderson, grand marshal

The 2025 parade honored Harry Anderson as grand marshal. According to the announcement, Anderson was born in 1941 and has lived in the heart of Everson for most of his life. Most people in town have likely seen him at Cattle Grounds Coffee, Smokestack, the Everson Laundry Mat, and the Everson Market. Each week he volunteers with the Nooksack Valley Food Bank, as he has for nearly 40 years. He has also spent 40 years with the Lions Club, the same club that cooks the festival’s meals, and 23 years as a member of the Everson Senior Center.

Tractors and lawn chairs, 2017

In 2017 Whatcom Kid Insider listed the event as the Everson Nooksack Summer Festival Parade, set for Saturday, July 8, at 11 a.m. That listing gave the starting point as Christ Fellowship Church, 1208 E Main St, Everson, while its location line named Nooksack Middle School, 404 W. Columbia Street, in Nooksack. It described participants traveling slowly down Main Street on tractors, floats, collector cars, horses, bicycles, and on foot. Families were invited to set up lawn chairs along the sidewalk of Main Street.