Garibaldi Days

On the Saturday of Garibaldi Days, Highway 101 through town closes at 10:30 in the morning, and coast traffic takes a detour around a parade. The festival runs three days on the north end of Tillamook Bay, held every last full weekend in July. Its center is the Port of Garibaldi’s event tent on Jerry Creasy Way, where vendors sell arts, crafts, food and drink from Friday noon into Sunday afternoon. The Port puts the crowd at an estimated 4,000 to 5,000. The 2026 festival, the 66th, ran July 24 through 26. The Port sponsored and organized it, and the Port and the City of Garibaldi together posted the street closures.

Ninety entrants on Highway 101

The parade steps off at 11 a.m. and runs Highway 101 between Third and Seventh streets, with a parade shuttle starting at 9. Visit Tillamook Coast advises arriving early for viewing and parking. In 2026 the parade carried 90 entrants from across the county and beyond. Among them were the Tillamook County Girl Scouts, Sheriff Josh Brown, State Senator Suzanne Weber, state senate candidate Courtney Bangs, and volunteers from the town’s Historic U.S. Coast Guard House. Two Tillamook County parade mainstays came too, the Power Pep Band and the Astoria Clowns. The theme was Finding Garibaldi. The grand marshals were Dennis and Amanda Cavitt, who own the Portside Bistro and the Barview Jetty Store.

From noon to four, Lumberman’s Park holds the family zone, with face painting, a bounce house, games and contests. The Port also lists a classic car show among the weekend’s offerings.

Water ball on Biak Avenue

In the afternoon the crowd moves to Biak Avenue, off Mooring Basin Road, which is cleared of parked cars for water ball. The Port’s page describes it as a contest between local volunteer fire departments. In 2026 teams from U.S. Coast Guard Station Tillamook Bay squared off against the fire crews, and a team of guardsmen won. The Headlight Herald’s preview set the start at 2 p.m. The schedule printed by Oregon Coast Beach Connection gave 3 p.m.

The evening belongs to the event tent. The Port told visitors on Instagram to “pack up your chairs, and your dancing shoes, and get your spot on the green.” In 2026 NEVERMiND, billed as Seattle’s tribute to Nirvana, opened at 5:30. Petty Fever, a Tom Petty tribute band, followed at 8. Fireworks over the bay came at dusk, around 10. The Headlight Herald called that weekend’s weather unseasonably dreary and the fireworks somewhat foggy. Visit Tillamook Coast’s advice is to bring layers.

Boathouse, railroad, and the Sunday tent

Much of the program spreads through town. The 1936 Coast Guard boathouse at 1209 Bay Lane opens afternoons for tours. The Maritime Museum at 112 Garibaldi Avenue keeps hours all three days. On Friday there is an oyster panel presentation in the Port tent at 1 p.m. and bingo at 5. On Saturday the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad, at 306 American Avenue, adds runs, and the library at 107 Sixth Street holds an open house.

Sunday winds down by early afternoon. Vendors stay until 2. From 11 to 2 the event tent holds Coast Guard Appreciation Day, with games, music, and food and drink for the service members of Coast Guard Station Tillamook Bay.

A reunion in 1960

The sources agree that the festival began in 1960. They differ on whose reunion started it. The Headlight Herald says Garibaldi Days began as a high school reunion celebration for students from the local school and grew into a celebration for the entire community. Oregon Coast Beach Connection says it appears to have started around 1960, possibly in connection with a Coast Guard class reunion, since early coverage often mentioned former personnel gathering during the festival.

By 1966 the festival offered skydiving, a Coast Guard demonstration, a dance, and a crab race in which a visitor could buy a crab for fifty cents and enter it. In 1974 newspapers reported the event a major financial success that drew thousands to the town. That year a lighted boat parade ran at night, a nine-ride carnival brought in heavy crowds, and there was a bathtub race. A Coast Guard reunion brought more than thirty former members from across the West. Former Coast Guard Lt. John McCormick received a signed guestbook in what the coverage described as an emotional moment. His service had begun at the Barview station in 1921.

The town is ninety years older than its festival. Daniel Bayley started the settlement in 1870 with a post office and the Greentree Hotel. He named it for Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian general and Republican political leader. In 2007 the Garibaldi Oregon Lions presented Garibaldi Days, July 27 to 29, as a celebration of the general’s 200th anniversary. That program included a Boy Scout breakfast at City Hall, the Lions’ Weenie Wagon, and the Old Time Fiddlers in the beer garden. Alena & Pacific Country played in the evenings, and the Garibaldi School class reunion met at City Hall on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday the town held a birthday party for Giuseppe Garibaldi with cake and ice cream. By the 2010s, go-karts, a Gyroscope ride, a fish tank and karaoke had joined the mix.

Garibaldi Days Lite

The festival has passed through several hands. According to a 2021 account, the former Chamber of Commerce organized it, then the Lions Club, and then, for six years, two city employees. The 2020 event was canceled because of the pandemic. On June 14, 2021, the Garibaldi City Council voted unanimously to hold the festival for two days, Saturday and Sunday, July 24 and 25. With little time to plan the 61st anniversary, the town called it “Garibaldi Days Lite.” The free nighttime concerts were dropped. The fireworks over the bay stayed, and so did the competitions between Garibaldi Fire Department volunteers and sailors from the Tillamook Bay Coast Guard Station.

Mayor Tim Hall had held a town hall meeting on June 3. “I pledged as mayor to once again include our residents in planning Garibaldi Days,” he said. Residents suggested a classic car show and a public stage for local musicians to play during the day. They also proposed a “Passport to Garibaldi” that would send visitors to the Historic Coast Guard Boat House, the marina, the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad, and the Garibaldi Museum, which holds displays on maritime and Coast Guard history, a coastal Native American exhibit, and a collection of historic firearms. “Our small fishing village is excited and pleased to once again gather residents and visitors,” Hall said, in a town of more than 800 residents. The grand marshal that July was Virgil Loudon. He had just retired from the Port of Garibaldi after 32 years, and he had facilitated the city’s parade for many years.