Vader May Day Festival

A Street on the first Saturday in May

On the morning of the Vader May Day Festival, horses rest beside their trailers on D Street, and parade entries form up at Seventh and D. Vendors line A Street near the MC stage and open at 10 a.m. The parade steps off at 11, and the cake walk, the bike raffle and the rest run until 3 p.m. The festival always falls on the first Saturday in May. Discover Lewis County calls it the informal start of the county’s late spring and summer festival season, and notes that Vader, now a quiet rural town, was once a stop on the Northern Pacific line.

The 2026 festival came on Saturday, May 2, under the theme “Red, White & Bloom!” On its Facebook page the festival said it was celebrating community, volunteers and America 250, and that morning it promised “a beautiful dry day.” The grand marshal was Mike Ferguson, whom the page introduced as “an amazing hard working man who helps volunteers with the most amazing smile and ‘can-do’ mentality.” Visitors who saw him running around were asked to stop and say hello.

Otto Rabe’s photographs for The Daily Chronicle show paradegoers along both sides of A Street. Candy came off nearly everything that moved. A boy tossed it from a float, riders on the South Lewis County Chamber of Commerce float handed it out, and Lewis County Commissioner Scott Brummer passed it along while a small child reached for a piece on the ground. The Winlock Dance Center walked the route. Royalty from neighboring festivals rode through: Morton Loggers Jubilee Queen Fairlane Armstrong with her princesses, the Winlock Egg Days royal court, Lewis County Rodeo Queen Kylee Smith and Washington Rodeo Roundup Little Queen Holly Grose. The Toledo Cheese Days float followed. A vintage Chevrolet truck and a Ford Model A came by, along with a Corvette draped in an American flag and a float for Tracy Murphy, candidate for Lewis County sheriff. State Sen. Jeff Wilson, R-Longview, drove his miniature tank. The festival page also announced Moss and Mud in the line.

Off the route, the cake walk ran on donations. The committee asked for baked goods, “home baked or store bought,” to be brought to a pop-up near the MC booth, next to the church parking lot. Mr. Twister made creations for festivalgoers, and the Vader Lions Club kept a presence. That night there was karaoke at The Tracks. The May Day Committee, which runs the festival, meets at the Little Crane Cafe at 6 p.m. on the first and third Mondays of the month, and weekly as the day draws near. That evening the committee posted: “Thank you everyone for joining our small community in such a big way on such a beautiful day!!!!”

Lena DeAger’s Scouts

The festival’s own history page says Lena DeAger started it in 1952. She was a Girl Scout leader in Vader, and the first parades were mostly the town’s Boy and Girl Scouts on bicycles and wagons they had decorated, some with pets. It was a very short parade. Over the years, the page says, she put much energy into making it bigger every year. She also brought in the May Pole Dance and the Cake Walk, both still part of the day.

The festival once crowned a May Day Queen, and its website tells two versions of how she was chosen. The history page says she was usually a first-grader who set out donation jars at businesses and went door to door, and the girl who raised the most money became Queen. Girls who later sought the title sold buttons. A note on the button contest page says the first candidates sold pieces of candy for a penny, and whoever sold the most was crowned. They later switched to colored ribbons and then to buttons. The same note says that one year there was a King. There is no court now. The committee writes that it may bring the court back someday, with the help of more volunteers.

A button for a dollar

The buttons outlasted the queens. They still pay for the festival. In 2026 they sold for $1 each at the Little Crane Cafe and The Tracks. Each year’s design comes from a free contest open to the public. Entries must be drawn by hand, since no computer or AI artwork is accepted. They may use no more than five colors and must survive being shrunk to fit a button 1.5 to 2 inches across. The winner receives $50, and the design goes on the buttons, sometimes on T-shirts, and on local advertising. The 2025 theme was “Peace Love & Tye-Dye!” and drew 30 entries from youth and adults. Devon Schey won it. Ron Gaul drew the buttons for 2022, 2023 and 2026, and Celestine Schey drew the 2024 button.

The website keeps a gallery of past buttons that begins in 1996. Most years from 1998 through 2021 are marked “Missing,” and the committee asks anyone with an old button to send a picture. At the bottom of the list, rows for 2027, 2028 and 2029 are already in place, with no pictures yet.