RiverFest 2018 Descending Upon Tri-Cities This Weekend

It’s being billed as a festival showcasing all of the benefits the Columbia and Snake river dams provide the Inland Northwest. Riverfest 2018 takes place Saturday on the Columbia in Kennewick. Forty exhibitors and vendors, including ports, utilities, agribusinesses and trade organizations will be on hand discussing how the dams benefit the entire region. Colin Hastings with the Pasco Chamber of Commerce said for those that grew up with the dams, it’s easy to take them for granted.

“It obviously has far reaching effects, even beyond the Northwest. Of all the wheat that’s exported, that’s grown here in the United States, and in Canada as well too, a lot of it comes down our Inland Marine Transportation system, from Lewiston all the way to Oregon.”

Hastings noted the dams also improve safety across the Northwest, buy removing semi-trucks from area roadways.

“That’s how we get most of our fuel up here, as well too, there’s not east-west pipeline, so a lot of it is barged up this way. It takes thousands of trucks off of the roadway, so if you’re just driving around, having those trucks and the maintenance of the roadway delayed because we’re using the river transportation system, helps us economically.”

Exhibits include:

Wanapum Tribe’s Native American Discovery Unit
Salmon Tent, a bright, beautiful 30-foot fish-shaped storytelling theater
Inflatable 18 foot tall slide to demonstrate fish slides at the dams plus kids games sponsored by Benton and Franklin PUD, Benton REA, and City of Richland Energy Services
Hydrosystem demonstration table - Foundation of Water and Energy Education
Jump on board a U.S. Coast Guard boat
Rolling River, a hands-on working stream table where families can run their own experiments to learn how rivers work
Activities teaching kids about Bonneville Power Administration power and transmission lines-
Try paddle boarding with Northwest Paddleboarding
Walk through the “River Maze” and gather information how salmon and the dams co-exist by the Benton Conservation District
Climb in the “Wheat Play Box”, a special area sponsored by the Port of Pasco, Franklin Conservation District, and Washington Grain Commission

And the Washington Ag Network is proud to be a sponsor of this year’s Riverfest.

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