Rainier Days in the Park

On the weekend following the Fourth of July, a Ferris wheel stands lit over Rainier Riverfront Park, at the edge of the Columbia River one block off Highway 30, which runs through town as B Street. The ground under it was built from dredge spoils left by the eruption of Mount St. Helens in the early 1980s. For three days Rainier Days in the Park fills the park, which the organizers call five acres. It holds a carnival midway, a main stage, a food court, and a row of vendors. Down the bank lie the river beach, the boat launch, and the marina.

The midway, the stage, and the food court

Davis Shows NW brings the carnival, a traveling midway of thrill, family, and kiddie rides with games and food concessions. In 2025 The Eagle listed the rides by name: Zero Gravity, Dive Bomber, Monster Trucks, Flying Dragoon, Extreme Scream, Pineapple Express, Fireball, Monkey Maze, Puppy Roll, Toon Cars, Vertigo, and the Expo Wheel. At the 2026 festival, held July 10 to 12, armbands cost $40 a person per day. On Sunday a second armband went for $20, and the carnival called it Buddy Day. Single ride tickets were $8, or five for $35. Game tickets were $1, and a game takes six or more. The midway ran from 3 to 10 p.m. on Friday, noon to 11 on Saturday, and noon to 6 on Sunday. Mayor Jerry Cole says the festival typically sells around 1,000 pre-sale carnival tickets. In 2022, $30 in presale bought unlimited rides.

The main stage puts on free live entertainment all day, every day, and hands out prizes and giveaways from the stage. In 2025 performers also worked the grounds on foot, a magician among them. Portland Wrestling came on Friday, July 10, 2026. On the 2022 wrestling card, Mayor Cole faced a foe called Gentlemen George. The museum’s photographs from that year show the mayor afterward as “Wrestling Champ,” holding a championship belt.

Food comes from a full food court with a covered dining area. In 2022 that meant The Islander food trailer and its pork plate, Luigi’s Pizza, a henna tattoo stand, and a Grocery Outlet booth. Cole counts over 100 vendors. The festival’s rules forbid smoking and alcohol in the park, though the city’s events page mentions a beer garden. Dogs must be leashed, and doggie bags hang at stations around the grounds.

The town plans around the weekend. In 2025 the Evergreen Pub & Cafe on East 1st Street held an all-day luau-themed pork roast on Saturday. On Sunday morning the Rainier Senior Center sold biscuits and gravy or a breakfast burrito at its front door for $10. A cornhole tournament, first held in 2022 and won that year by Bastian Walker and Jamie Bozarth, raised money in 2025 for Rainier girls basketball. Just west of the park, at 700 West A Street, the Rainier Oregon Historical Museum keeps a booth at the festival. “A lot of people look forward to the event and plan family reunions around it,” Cole told The Eagle.

Saturday at ten, morning and night

The parade steps off at 10 a.m. on Saturday. “We start up Rainier Boulevard, and it just kind of comes through some residential areas and ends up at the park,” Cole said in 2025. Anyone may enter. That year he chose the theme Christmas in July: “Everybody’s got Christmas decorations at home, it wouldn’t cost much to decorate your parade entry, and everybody loves Christmas.” The 2026 theme was America 250, with the instruction “Be creative have fun!” The festival’s photographs show an antique fire engine and the Rainier High School cheer squad. The historical museum sponsors the grand marshal each year.

The parade also carries the festival’s royalty. Miss Rainier Days for 2026 was Jessica Perkins, a local artist, author, illustrator, and performer. Her festival biography says she often works with Columbia River water taken from the banks at Rainier, including in her murals around town. Miss Teen Rainier Days was Ava Shelton, 13, a homeschooled Rainier native who draws and hopes to become a journalist. In 2022 the teen title went to Claire Marie Hansen, then 15, who was nationally ranked 11th as a competitive mounted archer.

By Saturday afternoon the town fills with cars. On July 11, 2026, the festival page warned drivers parked on the highway that crossing the white line meant a tow: “There’s plenty of parking throughout town. It’s a nice day the walk will do you good.” That evening it posted that someone had found a wedding and engagement ring set, to be claimed by description.

At 10 p.m. Saturday the fireworks go up over the river. The organizers call the show the largest fireworks display on the Columbia River and set it to music. Their banner says it was voted the best fireworks on the river every year from 2011 through 2025, except 2020. The contractor is Western Display Fireworks. “We start planning this show in the fall,” the festival wrote in 2026, and thanked its fireworks coordinator, Jerry Cole.

On Sunday morning the Rainier Ministerial Association holds Praise in the Park, a church service on the grounds. The Eagle gave its start in 2025 as 11 a.m. The carnival and vendors open by noon and close at 6.

Rafts, a princess, and a Chamber picnic

Cole dates the celebration to the 1950s. He says it disappeared in the 1980s and came back in the 1990s. A biography written by Carl Nys of the historical museum describes 1965, when Loyed Rea, newly a longshoreman, was chosen president of the Rainier Jaycees. The Jaycees put on the celebration, then called Rainier Daze. The committee included Rea, Jim “Red” Coffman, and Tom Ramey. Those were the days of the Rainier Ski-Bees’ water ski shows and the Kon-Tiki raft races at the Rainier Beach Blast. The Jaycees’ own raft was manned by Lonnie Pellham, Dick Hadlock, Coffman, and Rea, who, Nys wrote, “were responsible for sinking many rafts, including their own.” The next year, 1966, Kay Heflin was a Rainier Daze princess.

The revival came in 1992 under the Rainier Chamber of Commerce as Rainier Day in the Park, in the singular. The second annual Day in the Park fell on July 31, 1993. That year Mayor Dorothy Davis sent the invitation, and Chamber member Stephen Bender added a “You are invited” message. From 1998 through 2010 Rainier Eagles #4022 ran the festival, with Mike Poorman as chairman. “The city’s never hosted it, it’s always been run by outside organizations,” Cole said in 2025.

A blue ribbon in the logo

The festival passed to Cole in 2011, after Rainier’s chief of police, Ralph Painter, was killed. “When Chief Painter died in the line of duty, our community was hurting,” Cole said. “So, to just keep that alive, I said, ‘Well, I guess I’ll do it.’” Painter was named grand marshal of the 2011 festival, which ran four days, July 7 through 10. The grand marshal’s car carried photographs of him. Cole has drawn the festival logo every year since. “If you look at every one of the logos from 2011, you can find the blue ribbon in the logo, even this year.”

The advance work falls to three people. “We have over 100 vendors, music, a stage, porta potties, fireworks, event insurance, and the carnival,” Cole said. “All of that work is done by my daughter (Brooke), my wife (Christy), and me.” A team of volunteers helps during the festival. In 2022 the volunteers worked every day from Wednesday through Monday. They left around 11 on Sunday night and were back at 7 Monday morning to clean the park. Cole says the money raised in 2025 would pay for 2026.

On May 7, 2020, the festival announced that the governor’s office would not allow festivals and fairs, and that Rainier Days was canceled. The city held a Rainier Community Parade instead, at noon on July 11. It ran from the water reservoir north on East 4th Street, along C Street to 1st, then to A Street, and ended at the boat marina. Cole and Alan Harrison were co-chairmen. “It is designed to provide some sort of joy to the city within the state’s social distancing guidelines, so it’s all sidewalk-based,” Cole said. Loyed Rea rode as grand marshal, in a car driven by Bill Scholten. Spectators stood spread apart along the route, among them Marjorie Clark, the 2019 grand marshal. Parade units handed out toilet paper, masks, Purell hand sanitizer, and candy.

In 2025 the grand marshals were Kay Heflin and Duane Bernard, president and vice president of the historical museum. Heflin worked 32 years at the Rainier Post Office. Bernard came to the area with his parents in 1939 and graduated from Rainier Union High School in 1956. The 2025 parade fell on the tenth anniversary of the meeting at which the museum was voted into being. In 2026 the festival page named two grand marshals: “Hope of Rainier,” and Jim “Red” Coffman, the name on the Jaycees’ Rainier Daze committee of 1965.