Founder's Day

On the last Saturday in June, Cottage Avenue in Cashmere fills with automobiles for several blocks: polished classics, hot rods and restored pickups, each with its owner standing by through the day to answer questions. At the 2026 Founders’ Days, held June 27, the line included a 1954 Oldsmobile Starfire that, according to the Leavenworth Echo, cost $3,300 from the factory. There was also a 1958 Metropolitan Nash, a black ‘65 Cobra, and a 1956 Ford F-100 pickup painted Bulldog orange and parked in front of the Cashmere fire hall. Children wandered among the chrome bumpers and open engine bays. One Boy Scout carried his own blue toy truck through the display. The Mission Creek Community Club puts on the car show, and the awards are given at 2:30 in the afternoon.

The festival is run by the Cashmere Chamber of Commerce, which keeps its office at 103 Cottage Avenue. Visit Chelan County lists it for the last weekend of June. The Echo reported that thousands of visitors came downtown in 2026, under overcast skies that made for comfortable walking.

Booths toward Riverside Park

Behind the cars, the vendor fair runs through downtown back toward Riverside Park. It offers arts, crafts, gifts, home décor and specialty foods. In 2026 a yard-sign display by Card My Yard pointed visitors the right way. An information booth in the middle of the fair held a map of the United States, and visitors marked where they had come from. By Saturday afternoon the map showed 16 states.

The day starts earlier and elsewhere. A youth soccer tournament begins at 9:30 a.m. at Vale Field. The Brassbound Bazaar, an artisan fair hosted by the Brassbound Collective at Side Street on Railroad Avenue, was new in 2025 and opens with the car show at 10.

In 2025 the Cashmere Rotary held a two-day pickleball tournament on the high school tennis courts. The Cashmere Library ran a family fun fair at Riverside Park, reached by following the signs to the 9/11 Memorial. That fair included the annual salmon release, in which hundreds of salmon fry go into the Wenatchee River.

Burgers at the fire hall

At noon the Mission Creek Community Club cooks what the Echo called “a town-sized barbecue” at the fire hall. Volunteers grill hamburgers and hot dogs through the afternoon, and the money goes to scholarships, youth activities and local families in need. Food trucks park nearby for anyone wanting more than a hot dog and a can of soda. In 2026 one of them was Melt, a gourmet grilled-cheese truck that works its way around the valley.

Cashmere High School cheerleaders paint faces and apply temporary tattoos to raise money for the squad. In 2026 they also sold uniforms. Churches and nonprofit groups set out tables, and merchants keep their storefronts open.

In front of City Hall, the Touch-a-Truck lot holds fire engines, heavy equipment, tow trucks and other service vehicles. Children climb aboard and talk with the people who drive them. A table at the entrance offers free toys.

Ping-pong balls from a helicopter

At 3:30 on the 2026 schedule comes the ping-pong ball drop. NCWLIFE described it in 2021: a helicopter drops ping-pong balls worth prizes to children waiting in Riverside Park. In 2025 Doane’s Valley Pharmacy sponsored the drop, timed during the family fun fair in the park.

The drop has had a few lean years. COVID-19 cancelled Founders’ Days in 2020, the same year Cashmere lost its Apple Days. When the festival came back in 2021, most of its events returned, but the ball drop stayed away for another year. “We had to make that decision early on,” said Gina Imperato, the Chamber’s director. “We’re eager to bring that back next year but this year we’ve replaced that with the scavenger hunt.” The museum held an open house that year.

The drop returned in 2022, but the helicopter traditionally used for it was not available. Wendy Tankersley, the Chamber’s interim manager, told the Wenatchee World that an alternative was in the works. Visit Chelan County’s listing for 2026 again names a helicopter ball drop.

The Crunch Pak Grand Parade

The Crunch Pak Grand Parade on Cottage Avenue stepped off at 4:30 in 2026. In 2025 it started at 5 p.m., the same hour Imperato had called “a little earlier than usual” in 2021.

The 2025 parade carried floats from the royalty courts of Cashmere, Wenatchee, Odessa, Prosser and Manson, and from the Leavenworth Autumn Leaf Royalty. Behind them came Miss Connell, Miss Lake Chelan and the Chelan County Rodeo Queen. Walt the Wolf of the Wenatchee Wild walked the route, along with the Wenatchee Bighorns Dance Troupe, the Tillicum Riders, riders from the Alatheia Riding Center, and District 12 Rep. Mike Steele. Nine trucks from 6th District Fire rolled with the Cashmere Fire Department. At the 2021 parade, L-Bow the Clown performed a fire show.

After the parade, the music, food and beer garden opens at 5. The evening ends at 9 with a laser light show at City Hall.

The Diamond Jubilee of 1979

Cashmere reached its 75th year in 1979. A group of business owners and community members marked it with a Diamond Jubilee, and the Chamber says Founders’ Days grew from that celebration, “from a small parade to a day of festivities for all ages.” The Cashmere Valley Record describes that first celebration as a pioneer parade, an arts and crafts fair and a community picnic.

Accounts of the start date differ. The Record writes that the annual festival began in 1980, after the Jubilee’s success, and that “the following year, Founders’ Day became an annual tradition.” Most present-day festivals have filled one Saturday. In 2022 events began on Friday at 10 a.m. and ended with the Saturday parade, and the 2025 pickleball tournament ran into Sunday. The Record notes that many former Cashmere residents come home for the weekend. The city marked its 121st anniversary on July 1, 2025, three days after that year’s festival.

Since the Record’s back issues were digitized, the early festivals can be looked up. One article from July 1980 reports that Scott Jonas won the Stillman Miller Hill Climb, named for a prominent Cashmere businessman who had died only three years before.