December 2, 2023 • 58 mins
Ever wondered how a small community event can transform into a buzzing festival with 34,000 annual visitors? Well, your curiosity ends here. Join us as we journey into the heart of Washington's festival culture with Peggy Doering, the Executive Director of Spokane Valley's renowned Valley Fest. Her insights into the evolution of this fascinating event from its humble inception at a county park to the citywide phenomenon it is today, encapsulate the growth of Spokane Valley both in terms of its population and the dynamism of its diverse community.
Moving on from the growth of Valley Fest, we dive into the world of event coordination, exploring the trials and triumphs that come with it. We focus on the tireless work of volunteers, often the unsung heroes behind the seamless execution of such large scale events. We also share a deeply inspiring personal journey of the chairman of Valley Fest who, starting with no experience in event planning, was recently nominated for induction into the Washington Festival and Event Association Hall of Fame. Alongside, we acknowledge the role of community festivals and how they can evolve learning from larger events, underscoring the contributions of the Washington Festival Event Association.
Rounding off our discussion, we talk about Valley Fest's transition into a freestanding non-profit, emphasizing the importance of embracing change and innovation in the realm of event planning. Striking the delicate balance between securing funds, managing population growth, and keeping the community engaged is a challenge we dissect in this part of our conversation. The story of Valley Fest, its unique charm, and its impact on the Spokane Valley community unfolds through our engaging chat with Peggy. So tune in to unravel the magic that makes Valley Fest a special gem in the festival circuit.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Peggy (00:00):
This is Peggy Doering and you're listening to One Hour to
Doors.
Jon (00:07):
This is One Hour to Doors, a podcast about the business and
soul of the festivals andevents industry.
I am your host, john Stone.
Every episode of One Hour toDoors explores the people,
issues, insights and trendsimpacting the enterprise of
bringing people and communitiestogether in common cause.
We are recording today at theWashington Festivals and Events
(00:32):
Association annual conference,this year taking place in
Issaquah Washington.
Our guest today is PeggyDoering, executive Director of
Valley Fest in Spokane Valley,Washington.
Peggy is also a colleague ofmine and fellow past president
with WFEA.
Welcome to the show, Peggy.
Well, thank you for having me,Jon, it's my pleasure.
Peggy (00:52):
It's a beautiful day today.
Jon (00:56):
Tell us about Valley Fest.
Peggy (00:59):
Well Valley Fest just completed its 34th year of
producing a festival in the cityof Spokane Valley, Washington,
and the city of Spokane Valley,Washington this year also
celebrated its 20th anniversaryof being a city, so it's been
quite a journey watching ourcommunity grow over the last 34
(01:20):
years, since we started thefestival in a county park and
had 4,000 people attending thefirst year and having a hay bale
trailer being the main stageand one food vendor, which was
Domino's Pizza, to what we havetoday at Mirabu Point Park,
center Place, regional EventsCenter, Plants, ferry Park and
(01:42):
the Centennial Trail, WellesleyAvenue and a parade on Sprague
Avenue, usually pre-COVID.
We attract a 34,000 visitorsand guests to our events over
the three days of fun andfrivolity that we can provide to
those who come to the city ofSpokane Valley as tourists and
(02:04):
to the people who live and workand play in the area.
Jon (02:08):
You'll have to forgive my lack of geographic knowledge of
the greater Spokane area, butwhere is Spokane Valley relative
to the city of Spokane?
Peggy (02:18):
Good question, Jon.
I would like to take you on alittle walk around with me.
From the city of Spokane youhead east towards Cortoling, and
we are a valley between thecity of Spokane and the Idaho
border.
Oh, okay, it's kind of anebulous area because we also go
north and south and we includefour school districts in this
(02:41):
geographical area.
But the main connecting pointis I-90.
And if you are on I-90, youhave no idea of what you're
missing by just traveling theroad between Point A, which is
city of Spokane, and over to thebeautiful jewel in North Idaho
which is Cortoling.
So taking an exit off of thefreeway on Pines Road, I would
(03:05):
direct you north to the SpokaneRiver.
The Spokane River flows throughthe city of Spokane Valley, from
Idaho down into Spokane.
We have rural area, we haveparks, we have a centennial
trail, we have fishing, we havekayaking, we have lots of
(03:26):
outdoor activities along ourSpokane River, in addition to an
industrial area along the river, and recently the city of
Spokane Valley acquired 65 acresalong the river for future park
development.
So I always feel that we'refive minutes away in this
beautiful nature setting toenhance and to enrich our lives.
(03:48):
And forget about that.
Hurry, hurry, go, go, gobetween the two cities in the
freeway.
Also, off of Pines Road, youcan head south towards the city
center core, which we'redeveloping as a new city.
We have a city hall, awonderful Balfour Park, and
that's where our parade is, thecentered Onsberg Avenue.
(04:08):
So you really do have to leavethe freeway in order to see the
city of Spokane Valley.
But it has a lot to offer withour schools, our students are
the people that live there, andthen we also have a huge
shopping area in the city ofSpokane Valley that attracts
visitors from all over also.
Jon (04:30):
I want to ask is there significant population growth
occurring in that area thesedays?
Peggy (04:36):
Yes, when we became a city 20 years ago, I believe, we
were close to 78,000 residents,which was one of the largest
new cities that has ever formedin the United States.
In fact, the president.
In fact there's a proclamationthat was sent by the president
of the United States office atthat time, congratulating us on
that effort to bring managedgrowth and services to the
(05:01):
community, that he had relied oncounty services for a very long
time and so when the city wasformed everyone was financially
and fiscally very responsiblefor the city.
So it's a lot of contractservices there, which is a
little bit different to how tomanage a municipality in that
part of the state.
We did inherit all the parkproperty from the county.
(05:22):
And then and then we were.
In addition to that we hadother center place, regional
event center, and Mirber PointPark was being developed at the
time and then that was deededover to us.
We've acquired since then justI think in the last year Plants
Ferry Park, which is anothercounty park.
It's kind of shared with thecity but that has the soccer
(05:43):
fields and the baseball fieldson that property also.
Now our growth has grown to.
I believe we're close to130,000 families, huge growth in
apartments and finding livablespaces and services for people,
and also we are acquiringthrough World Relief and other
(06:06):
refugee associations.
Our city last year had 176 newresidents from outside the
United States and I believethey're on track for the same
number of families to come intoour city this year.
For my edification?
Jon (06:21):
Were you involved with the formation of Valley Fest?
Do you go that far back with it?
Peggy (06:28):
I was a PTA mom when Valley Fest was started by one
of my very good friends, sueDeLuke.
She and a group of neighborssat around the table in 1989 and
said what do we have to offerchildren and families in this
Boocan Valley?
The services, the nonprofitservices, were not extended into
(06:53):
the Valley at the time.
I'm talking campfire, boyScouts, girl Scouts, art, school
, services for health andwellness, that children needed
therapy services, etc.
And so we decided that it wouldjust.
Why don't we talk to the countyand to some other people,
leaders in the businesses in theValley, and see what they could
(07:16):
do for us?
And so a board was formed and acommittee was formed.
The county actually put a staffmember to help with planning
this in place.
For many years, until we becamea city, we always had a member
of the county parks departmenton our board.
I became involved because Sueasked me if I would help with
(07:37):
the food and if I could runcotton candy.
So I started out making cottoncandy at Valley Fest, right on.
You have to have fun.
And so I had these three.
Well, one was pretty young,about four or five, but I had
three children, and so I madethe cotton candy and then they
(07:58):
ran the front counter.
We probably wouldn't have thatrelationship today at our
festivals and fairs, having kidsmaking change and handing over
the cotton candy.
But it was slow, but we had alot of fun and a lot of spun
sugar.
Jon (08:14):
Your origin story into the festival is very different than
my origin story into thebusiness.
I like yours a lot bettercotton candy and was Valley Fest
.
Your first was that your entryinto the festivals and events
industry.
Peggy (08:29):
Yes, it was yeah, but we had fun.
I could see the benefit to thecommunity.
I could see that we were very,always, from the very beginning,
we included nonprofits to bethere for free or reasonable
amount of money if they provideda free activity for children
and Valley Fest was always meantto be free for kids to attend,
(08:50):
for the community to attend.
So we found sponsors for theinflatables and for the pony
rides and the nonprofits broughtcookie decorating or cookie
stack Oreo cookie stack.
The activities were provided bythe nonprofits and the stores
and businesses in the area andin doing so you are able to
communicate what they had tooffer and how to enroll your
(09:13):
children in these programs, howthat you didn't have to have a
lot of money to join.
There were some other servicesthat could help provide
enrichment so we could grow ahealthy group of people to
continue to work and play andstay in our community and not
leave or feel like there didn'thave any advantages there, and
(09:33):
that was always the main purposeof Valley Fest when I started,
and of course we've grown overthe years, we've added a lot of
components to that, but that'show it started.
Jon (09:44):
I've read somewhere a description of Valley Fest.
Two quotes kind of stuck withme.
The first one was a truecommunity festival, which I
don't think I've ever heard thatexact phrase before.
True, what does that mean?
And the other one is to serveas a bridge but that was a
driver of the festival to serveas a community bridge, of sorts.
(10:05):
I'm wondering if you've heardthose descriptions and, if so,
if you could elaborate on whatthat means in the local context.
Peggy (10:13):
A bridge.
I think that when you do nothave organized community or
location or place place is veryimportant in my thoughts that
you don't know where to seekinformation or you don't know
who to turn to.
So the school districts werereally important in getting
(10:35):
information out to children andfamilies.
But their business is education, maintaining school property.
So a bridge to that was thatpeople felt like they couldn't
communicate with the school orthey didn't know that there was
a baseball team or a soccerleague or something like
activities, how to get engagedwith this.
(10:57):
They wanted to have their kidsinvolved but they didn't want to
drive all the way into Spokane,which isn't that far, it's
relative.
It's space again, and place isvery important.
I was a room mother for years.
I would go with the thirdgraders on the bus into Spokane
to parks and recreation, theManitow Park and to Riverfront
(11:20):
Park and to the courthouse.
Many of the kids had never beenpast Havana Street and were
just shocked to see that theirworld had expanded.
So how do you bring that partof the world into their world
and what they know in theirplace and in their neighborhood?
And so that's what Valley FestI think is meant by a bridge for
(11:41):
people to communicate and tofeel comfortable in their place
of origin or their place ofemployment or their home life.
That's a bridge that you can say, oh yeah, I know that I can get
my kids involved in this.
Or gee, we need a therapy forspeech therapy or some type of
services that you heard aboutbut you didn't know how to
access it by having a booth or aperson there talking about it
(12:04):
and your kids are playing andyou go oh yeah, I got
information, now I know who tocontact.
Or I need new windows for myhouse.
You have a contact, you dobusiness with your friends, you
do business with people that youtrust and you know, and that's
another bridge that I think thecommunity looks forward to those
(12:25):
activities.
Jon (12:27):
The word connector comes to mind.
That's what I'm hearing.
The festival serves as aconnector.
I'm getting a picture in my mindof the community, just to your
excellent description.
It's making me think about it.
In South King County there is aphenomena where there are all
these different emergingcommunities two, three, four,
(12:51):
five or six differentcommunities and they're all very
vibrant and they're all verymuch existing in their own
bubble.
So you can have two communitiesnext door to each other,
adjacent to each other, butthere's not a lot of
cross-pollinization.
Everybody kind of lives intheir own bubble and I had a
client that was one of thosecommunities and my client had a
(13:12):
vision of a much more connected,larger whole community and they
were interested in what itwould take for them to be seen
by all as kind of that hub, thatconnector bridging all these
different communities.
And it was very, veryinteresting but I'm getting this
picture in my head at ValleyFest is kind of serving that
(13:32):
purpose in some ways.
Peggy (13:35):
Yes, we do.
Jon (13:36):
You said attendance prior to pandemic was up to about
34,000.
You took, I assume, at leastone year off from the pandemic.
Peggy (13:45):
Yes, we did.
We took 2020 off.
We did have a neighborhoodparade where we had a new police
chief that year so he led theparade.
We had cars.
Every one was sociallydistanced.
We had our royalty.
We invited about up to 20different organizations and
supporters in cars, like thefire truck and everything, and
(14:09):
we just went through theneighborhood parades on a
Saturday morning and broughtsome cheer, some levity out into
the neighborhoods that we felthad a density of children and
families that might enjoy comingout and getting candy and
surprised them with the parade.
But we also had people whowanted to in the parade, who
(14:31):
wanted to connect the mayor andthe police chief and the fire
department and our royalty andyou just kind of have some fun.
So we did that in 2020.
And then 2021, we had our cyclecelebration, but we also had to
cancel Valley Fest again thatyear.
So we have a bike ride in July,which is 11 years old.
(14:54):
That again was anotherconnector that came to us 11
years ago.
One of our former city councilmembers was very thrilled with
all of our bike lanes and bikeroutes in the city and our bike
trails that are identified asfamily friendly and
transportation movers.
So we wanted to have a 10, 25and 50 mile bike ride and it was
(15:17):
the 10th anniversary of thecity and I am a nonprofit, I
have sponsorship abilities andwe have an organization that
helps support his idea.
And they came with veryenthusiastic bike riders and
people who knew how to put on a10, 25 and 50 mile bike ride.
And so for 11 years we have donethe cycle celebration in the
(15:38):
Spokane Valley and collaboratedwith the city of Spokane Valley
and the county.
We're on county roads and on thestate park land the Centennial
Trail and have had a lot of fun.
So there's some things thathaven't worked with Valley Fest,
for we've tried ideas andthings haven't worked out over
(16:01):
the years.
But we work with a group ofpeople that are interested in
this, who come to us with ideasand they have volunteers.
They need help withorganization and a nonprofit
status.
They want to help us reach ourpeople to, or are the people
that live in the Spokane Valleyor the visitors kind of
(16:22):
showcasing what they have tooffer, what we all have in our
communities that are specialtalents or interests, and so by
bringing small parts of this toa larger event we're able to
help them with their activitiesor causes or business plans, and
so that is something thatValley Fest has done over the
(16:45):
years, and so cycle celebrationis in July it's the last Sunday
in July, but we have felt thatit's been very successful in
launching and bringing peopletogether and launching our
activities for the Valley Festevent, which is in September.
Jon (17:01):
But it sounds to me like Valley Fest is not only an event
promoter, but it's also avehicle for other folks, or?
Other entities to be able tomake their ideas come to life as
well.
Is that kind of accurate?
Peggy (17:18):
For several years I had a logging fest and we worked with
the Spokane Sports Commissionat the time.
They wanted to promote loggingsports.
We had a young woman I can'tremember her name right now but
she has won national awards andaround the world with her saw
(17:39):
and her acts and she's quite aninteresting person.
She went on to develop abusiness based on what she
learned in strength andendurance and so she's a very
successful business woman inSpokane now.
With her is a physical fitnessprogram.
But they came to us, the SportsCommission, and asked to do a
(17:59):
logging fest and so I startedlearning about logging.
I went out and actually wasintroduced to a cottonwood tree
in Hawaii.
It's a bad tree for chainsawsand we looked at what kind of
timber would be great for whatkind of trees I needed for the
pole climb and just a lot ofdifferent aspects.
(18:22):
So we created an arena, so tospeak, and we had a vista.
Come in and plant the tallpoles that we needed for the
pole climb.
We had water for the logrolling, we had targets for the
axe throwing, we had a lot ofchainsaws going and people loved
(18:43):
it.
But the problem with it was itwas a very limited number of
people who are actually intothis sport in Spokane region.
So we would have to pay quite abit of money for prizes and to
draw people in to do their teams.
And we had, like the crosscutsaw I mean I don't remember all
the names now John, it wasreally into timber sports.
(19:07):
It was very enjoyable but verytime consuming on my part.
And then when the organizer ofthat says, oh, I don't know if I
can continue this next year.
There was no one to take thatand so we let it go and it
didn't develop into what thesports commission and I had
hoped we could.
We didn't have the people tocontinue it.
Jon (19:29):
Didn't have the critical mass of all of Valley Fest.
What I'm hearing is a group ofessentially volunteers that you
all created something out ofnothing.
But what I'm not hearing whichis unusual if this is correct is
that what you didn't have atthe formation of all of this was
that seasoned event veteran,that visionary person.
(19:51):
It sounds like it was justtruly a grassroots community
effort A lot of trial and error.
Peggy (19:58):
Yes, is what I'm hearing learn as you go.
I would say that no one actuallyhas a degree in event
management.
What they have is a good heartand an interest in making their
community better and, as I'vesaid at many of my committee
meetings, no one in this roomhas.
(20:20):
It takes everybody's particularskill to make the whole thing
come together.
Ordinary people doingextraordinary things is how I
actually see it.
For one week or one weekend ayear, we have an event
coordinator who his job duringthe week is.
(20:41):
He works for a large automotiveparts store and he is managing
all the event staff and the movein and the move out of the
event.
He is assisted by a young manwho started volunteering when he
was in high school with us.
He's now an electrician workingfor an HVAC company and a young
family with small children andhe is the assistant event day
(21:05):
coordinator.
These people are wonderfulvolunteers.
They believe and love the eventand they always are thinking
about how to make it better andhow to improve it, and they take
ownership of this.
This is their event, this istheir community and they are
going forth with it.
(21:25):
And the same thing for we haveabout 26 committees with Valley
Fest, and so most people takethe ownership of it and they
feel guilty when they can't doit that year.
But you know you let people go.
They usually come back or theyfind someone to replace them
that can continue on Some of thechallenges we're going to have
(21:47):
this next year.
I just met with the volunteerswho did the multi-sport Sunday
triathlon, duathlon, 5k and 10Krace.
It's just overwhelming.
Now, with the, we were on theriver, we're on the road with
the bicycling and then we'reusing this intangible trail for
the 5K and 10K.
Well, scope, which is ourcommunity policing organization
(22:10):
that helps with road closuresand intersections, on Friday
night we have a parade.
So we use over 26 of themvolunteers on Friday night for
the parade and then on Saturdaythey are involved with the
Rockford Community Fair and thenon Sunday we asked them to come
back for road closures for thecycle.
(22:32):
And we just do not have enoughpeople to do it.
And so we have to look at youknow the numbers to see what we
can do.
Maybe we take it back for aperiod of time until we can
figure out what we're going todo the road is.
When we first started doingthis, the road wasn't very busy
on Sunday morning, but now, withall of the new housing
developments and apartmentcomplexes, this has put us in a
(22:54):
different situation that needsto be analyzed.
And do we really have that manypeople doing that part of the
event, or should we just focuson the 5K and the 10K and do it
that way?
This year we had 22 people onthe triathlon, which is kayaking
from Mirabu Park down to PlantsFerry Park, and then they
(23:15):
transitioned to the cycle and tothe running.
But is it putting all thosevolunteers out there for 22
people?
Is that what we really shouldbe doing?
So those are some things thatwe're talking about now as we're
going back and doing theanalysis of it.
We try to incorporate manyactivities that appeal to lots
of people to get something foreveryone.
(23:35):
It's kind of been our mottoreally early on.
It's impossible to do that, butwe have tried to do that over
the years.
Jon (23:43):
A question that I normally ask my guests on the show, my
festival producer guests, is whohas been your role model, who
has been your mentor in thebusiness?
But it sounds like everythingthat you have done you're
pioneering.
There wasn't the elderleadership in front of you, it's
(24:06):
like you and your team were thecreators.
The question that comes to mindis where have you drawn your
motivation to keep the machinerunning and evolving for so long
?
Peggy (24:17):
Well, there's a lot of parts to that question, Jon.
I don't know where to start,but when I first started was
1996, I became the chairman ofthe event when the founder, Sue
DeLukie, moved to the Tri-Cities.
I was the only person aroundthe table that day that did not
(24:37):
look at the floor, so Iinherited the job.
Jon (24:42):
I knew how that goes.
Peggy (24:44):
And at that point everyone gave a big sigh of
relief and said well, stay withyou for a year and help you out.
No one quit.
So they all stayed andsupported me and trusted me.
And there were some people thatwere very doubtful of this just
because of my lack ofexperience and going from cotton
candy PTA, like can she do this?
(25:07):
So at the time that thishappened there were some very
strong board members that hadbeen recruited to give this new
organization lift off and one ofthem was Greg Bever.
He was a community activist andleader and knew a lot of people
.
So I went and talked to him andhe could see I had no experience
(25:29):
with sponsorship.
I had no idea how to write agrant.
I could talk to people.
I wasn't really scared.
I mean, it only took threemonths to plan Valley Fest and
there's all.
These people are going to staywith me.
But I had to figure this out.
So he set me up with a meetingwith another volunteer and she
(25:54):
on the board and we went over tothe North Idaho Fair director,
who also was a member of ILEA,and she was a member of the
festival and associationindustry, which I didn't even
know existed, had no clue andshe saw how green I was and how
naive I was and how I neededassistance and she just poured
(26:17):
tons of knowledge in my head andput me into contact with people
in Idaho in the festival andevent association in Boise, and
Patty helped me with sponsorshipbecause she worked for a
grocery store chain thatsponsored Valley Fest, and so
(26:37):
the board of directors stayed,the volunteer stayed.
They could see how naive andgreen I was but I stayed and I
wrote the grants and I askedquestions and followed the
format that had been placedbefore me and everyone
congratulated me on coming.
(26:59):
You know we're getting ittogether that first year.
It was fun.
We had a lot of fun doing that.
People were appreciative of it.
They were glad to see that itdidn't go away when Sue left.
I mean, there was some probablydoubts that it wouldn't happen,
but I had great belief in thepeople who said they would stay
and help me and everyonefollowed through with what they
(27:21):
said they would do and I wasvery excited I got.
I wrote a grant to US Bank andwe got money and our budget was
pretty low at that time.
I might add.
It was like 15,000 to put thewhole thing on insurance and
everything.
So it was, oh well, that isn'tso bad, and so I signed on for
(27:45):
another year.
Jon (27:48):
And from your roots in cotton candy, I understand that
this year a panel of your peershas nominated you for induction
into the Washington Festival andEvent Association Hall of Fame.
Peggy (28:04):
Yes, they did.
Jon (28:05):
That's quite a journey.
Peggy (28:08):
It is amazing.
Jon (28:09):
How do you feel about that?
Peggy (28:12):
Oh, when I found out that I was being nominated and
inducted, I looked at the peoplewho went before me.
I couldn't believe it and I'mstill a little bit, you know,
not sure of that.
Jon (28:27):
Imposter syndrome.
Peggy (28:28):
Yes, yes, yes, thank you, thank you.
Jon (28:30):
There's a name for that.
Peggy (28:32):
You know, because from Spokane we have Hootfest and
Bloomsday, which are nationallyknown brands of events that are
put on for a specific audience.
A community festival organizerlike myself, I am basically a
volunteer with the organization.
(28:52):
I am not it's not it's abusiness, but it's in the
nonprofit realm.
We are giving a lot to thecommunity with the event and so,
yes, I am humbled and I'mgrateful, so at the same time,
to be entrusted, to be inductedinto the Hall of Fame.
Jon (29:14):
From my first years being a member of the Washington
Festival Event Association.
At the time I joined theorganization and got involved.
I at that time just happened tobe working for a major event
producer and I remember at theconferences, at the occasional
meetings, whenever themembership would get together,
(29:35):
there was this perpetual themefrom the small community events
that you know, all of theseeducational classes, all of this
talking and sharing of thingsthat are happening with the big
events.
That's all great but it's notreally relevant to what we're
doing.
We're just a small communityevent and I never bought into
(29:57):
that.
I always thought that was almosta tragic short-sightedness, for
two reasons.
One because and this has been,I've proven this out time and
time again over the years everyissue that's ever going to come
down the road and present achallenge or an opportunity to
the smallest, most remote ruralevents first impacts the big
(30:20):
ones and it always trickles down.
Sometimes it might take 10years before it trickles down,
or it might be next season, butit always trickles down.
So I always saw, I always sawWFBA as a way for the smaller
events, the morecommunity-oriented events, to
kind of get a little glimpseinto the crystal ball and see
what might be coming down theroad in the future and kind of
(30:43):
get a jumpstart on that.
But the other, probably the moreimportant aspect of it is that
at the end of the day we're alltrying to make an impact, we're
all trying to facilitate somesort of advancement of community
and that always shines thebrightest at the smaller
(31:03):
community level events.
In my opinion, the big eventshave all the literal bright
lights and they make the mostnoise again, literally and
figuratively, and they have themost zeros behind all the
numbers on their P&L and allthat.
But at the end of the day it'sjust a bunch of zeros.
None of that really matters.
What matters is the impact oncommunity and in that regard
(31:27):
there's no real scale for that.
We're all doing the same work.
Peggy (31:32):
Yes, we are.
I've learned a lot from theWFEA and from the very beginning
when I started going toconferences and meeting people,
this organization, this Festivaland Event Association, has been
very gracious in sharinginformation.
Absolutely, it's helpful topeople who are starting out with
(31:53):
a new Festival and Event,giving intuitive responses and
listening to your ideas andredirecting or showcasing or
telling you this is what youshould be doing, this is what
needs to be done.
This happened to me.
I don't want it to happen toyou.
Many, many conversations, bothin conferences and out of
conferences.
I've always felt that I canturn to this organization, to
(32:17):
the people that I've met aredoing the same type of work and
receive honest, true feedbackthat is given very generously.
There is a very uncompetitiveatmosphere.
I remember when I first came toSeattle for a conference it
must have been 20-some years agoI was in an elevator and this
(32:38):
man was talking to me and heactually ran a security company
and spoke hand.
He just took me aside and saidI want to help you.
That was Crowd ManagementServices, CMS, mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm Started talking to meabout security and things I
hadn't even thought about.
It made a huge impact on me thata large company like that was
(33:01):
not looking for me to come upwith a budget that would meet
what he would need to staff itwith, but he was interested in
making sure that my event wassafe and that I was doing the
right thing and I needed to knowthis information.
I have always taken andlistened to everyone at these
events planning sessions andoutside conversations or
(33:21):
luncheons or dinners andlistened to what people have
said and taken the good ideasback and talked to my board and
talked to the volunteers andsaid this is what we must do and
how we have to make thisstronger and safer for everyone
and, as you know, security rightnow is probably the biggest
challenge for all events,absolutely and numbers aren't
(33:45):
going to come back to festivalsand events without us reassuring
our customers, as you will, ourattendees, that they're safe
and that we are looking out foreverything we can to make their
experience fun and pleasurableand secure.
Jon (34:03):
If you'll indulge just a little tangent here, you
mentioned the CMS fellow in theelevator.
You said roughly 20 years agoor something like that.
That corresponds in the timelineperfectly with the
professionalization of thefestival and events industry
that has occurred roughly overthe last 20 or 25 years.
When I first got into thiscircus, there really wasn't that
(34:27):
much rules, regulations, codeon the books.
Events were just.
They weren't regulated orgoverned by any particular
authority or scheme.
You basically just kind of didwhat you wanted to do, and those
are really fun times andthey're also highly problematic
times.
And then, for whatever reason orreasons, around the mid 90s, at
(34:50):
least in the greater Seattlearea where I spent most of my
time, that started to shift andwe started to kind of self
professionalize as an industryFits and starts.
Two steps forward, one stepback, people all forward, other
people kind of against it.
But you fast forward to presentday and this is a legitimate
(35:11):
industry sector and society andgovernments and communities
expect us, they demand us, toconduct ourselves as such, and
so it sounds like the CMS fellowthat you remember was kind of
on the leading edge of that, andthat's again that's another
thing that WFEA is really strongin is that sharing of
information, regardless of thesize or scale or scope of your
(35:34):
event.
If you're in this long enough,you know that it's all going to
come around and affect everybodyand it doesn't do us.
It actually hurts us as anindustry now when there are bad
actors or innocent but naiveactors.
We can't afford to let thathappen.
We have to keep pushing theball forward in terms of
(35:55):
professionalism.
Peggy (35:58):
There's a lot of things I've learned and good ideas from
conferences and talking withother people that we have taken
back to our community and goneto our community sponsors, your
civic leaders, fire and policedepartments and we have been
able to adapt them to the rulesand regulations that we have in
(36:20):
our communities to make eventssafe, food vendors safe, our
stages safe for performers.
There's many safety featuresinvolved in the production of
the festival and I have to saythat we all work together on
making our plan work.
We have a very organized planthat's reviewed by the police
(36:41):
and the fire department, goesthrough our security private
security agencies that we use.
We just had our valley fest twoweeks ago.
We haven't quite had our recapwith everybody yet, but after
the event we go back overeverything that we had planned,
we evaluate it and makerecommendations for next year.
(37:02):
Some of the fun ideas I've comeback with from Valleyf est.
On entertainment the steam stemactivities A few years ago we
had a huge Lego presentation.
We went back and talked withour universities and school
districts in the Spokane region.
Now we started it prior toCOVID, but the last two years
(37:27):
I'm going to refer to Our steamactivities have been extremely
popular at our festival.
I want you to remember thatthis is a community festival, so
it's not just a one-themesituation.
I mean we have dogs, steam cars, pancake breakfast runs, walks,
booths.
(37:47):
I mean there's a lot of thingsgoing on here, a lot of moving
parts going on here, but steam,I think, has been one of the
biggest and most fun challengesthat we've had in bringing
industry and businesses,bringing activities for 10 to
15-year-olds to participate in,and what we have said to them is
(38:07):
that this is your futureworkforce.
We have a lot of activities forchildren under the age of 10,
but by the time they reach nineor 10, they've done everything,
and so we need to encourage thisnext level.
And so the businesses havestepped up with lots of
interactive activities that theyactually have created at their
(38:29):
business.
I'm going to pick on one.
Wagstaff Engineering is a metalmanufacturing I don't know
manufacturer in Spokane.
It's huge.
They have made their modelsdown so where kids can pour
molten chocolate through andthen they have a chocolate bar
at the end.
Awesome, and it's fascinatingfor both parents and kids to be
(38:51):
interactive with these womenscientists and engineers and men
engineers from Wagstaff.
But they are working with theirfuture workforce.
Everyone's excited about it.
It's an activity at Valleyf est.
Again, they're already planninghow to make one part of this
bigger and better for next year,and so it's fun to see the
(39:13):
successes.
I've talked about things thatkind of we started and then, for
whatever reason, we had neededto stop it, but then we keep
looking for other ideas ortrends that we can bring into
the festival.
What we have in our communitythat can be showcased and
developed.
Jon (39:30):
A very similar concept to my recent episode with Robin
Kelly, and one of my questionsfor Robin is how, in the heck as
Issaquah Salmon Days stayed aspopular, stayed as current,
stayed as contemporary today asit was 30-some odd years ago,
especially given theextraordinary change in the
(39:51):
community of Issaquah populationgrowth, demographic shift.
It's extraordinary, yet SalmonDays through it all just keeps
humming right along.
And she told a very similarstory about how every year they
have to look at nothing sacred,I guess is one of her main
themes.
They take really hard, honest,open looks at all these
(40:13):
activities, no matter howbeloved they are at the time.
And every year some things goand some new things come in.
And it's never an easy process,she said, but it works, it's
effective.
Peggy (40:24):
You do, and there's more people moving in.
They have other ideas they'rebringing from other communities
that they would like to see atyour festival.
Before COVID, I started workingwith some multicultural
organizations in Spokane andSpokane region and we started
planning our multiculturalfestival.
Within the festival, we'dalways had had entertainment on
(40:48):
our stages from these differentgroups, but I felt we were now
needing to open this up to wheretheir organizations and groups
should be telling more of theirstory and taking more ownership
of parts of the festival.
And so last year we did amulticultural Sunday up at
Center Place Regional EventCenter and it worked out well
(41:12):
for our first time since COVIDdoing this.
But they wanted to be includedmore into the center of the
festival, which is we have liketwo or three venues here.
So if you're not having beenthere, I'm just trying to
visually transplant you.
So we listened to theirevaluations last year.
So this year we moved them intoMirabu Point Park where we have
(41:32):
over 250 booths and twoentertainment stages and there's
a larger audience and it'sSaturday and Sunday incorporated
these booths into a villagethis year and included more
entertainment.
I think it worked out fine.
I haven't heard too much aboutit yet.
We haven't had our postevaluation, but my observation
(41:53):
is maybe I moved too fast, toosoon to two days for some of
these small nonprofits to beable to staff a booth for two
days.
So I'm interested to see whattheir evaluation is going to be,
but I do know that they werevery excited and felt very
welcome.
We want to have thatcontinuation of how we can put
(42:14):
more of that into the festivaland then be more inclusive.
Our population is changing.
We need to be aware of the factthat we are now pushing past
130,000 people in the city ofSpokane Valley and we need to be
aware of who all we have.
We're not the same community wewere 34 years ago of people
(42:39):
basically graduating from highschool going to work for Kaiser
or the lumber industries orstaying there and their children
going to the same schools.
Now there's a lot of people whoare coming in with different
interests in food or differentinterests in shopping or customs
, and we need to be aware ofthem and help them find their
(43:00):
place in the community too andfeel a sense of belonging.
So that's kind of anotherchallenge that I'm looking at to
see how we can work with ourcommunity partners on this and
listen to their advice and moveforward with what we can do, and
then other people can comealongside all of us and help us
(43:22):
grow, and help the people thatare attending and the businesses
.
Jon (43:27):
It's that balance of tradition and the need for new
routes Exactly Very common themethese days.
I don't know if you want totalk about this.
If you do, great, if not,that's great as well.
Last night we were chatting fora little bit and you floated
the notion that perhaps youmight not keep driving the ship
(43:51):
at Valley Fest forever and thatyou're starting to think about
things like succession planningand what the future looks like.
And how does that even?
How would that transition, evenwhat would that look like?
Peggy (44:06):
That is a question I receive a lot.
I've been doing this for a longtime and I think people just
assume I'm going to continue on.
But people are asking questions, and by people I mean the City
of Spokane Valley EconomicDevelopment Office and the City
of Spokane Valley Parks andRecreation.
My board has been asking mealso the same question.
(44:26):
The answer is I still enjoywhat I'm doing, but we do need
to think about how we cansuccessfully transition this to
keeping it as a community eventthat's free and open to the
public, engaging children andfamilies and serving the
community with the currentmission statement that we have.
(44:48):
So there are some variablesthere.
So I still haven't given upthose reins on guiding people
with the vision that we startedwith when we're trying to
continue.
But I do know that I have to bereplaced and we need to find an
answer for that, and I'mworking with the City of Spokane
(45:11):
Valley.
I don't know if we can separate.
I personally have to separatemy Peggy Doering from ValleyFest
and make sure that ValleyFestcan continue without Peggy, and
I think a lot of people.
I think I have to help peoplewith that struggle, and so
that's what I think we weretalking about last night is how
(45:33):
to transition this into afreestanding, non-profit event
that I've given a lot of timeand heart to, obviously, but
there are a lot of good peopleout there that want to see it
continue.
Jon (45:46):
Is it the board's responsibility to find that
answer?
Peggy (45:49):
Whalen Traditionally, yes , I would say that would be it,
but they're just as lost as I amsometimes on the questions
because we don't know how tofind the financing to have a
paid Executive Director.
Jon (46:04):
I see.
Peggy (46:04):
So it's the funding.
Funding is key here.
Jon (46:11):
Well, if there's a silver lining to that conundrum, I
would point to population growth.
You know, at least withpopulation growth in theory at
least along with that comesfunding opportunities.
Yes, some way, some way.
Peggy (46:30):
We are looking and talking with a lot of our
partners currently to see how wecan do that, and there are a
lot of models in this state thatmight work with a public
private funding mechanism andwith Parks and Recreation
Departments and non-profit boardof directors.
(46:51):
There are some models out therethat we might be able to use.
Jon (46:58):
After all of these years with this event, what enables
you to get out of bed in themorning and get right back to it
?
Peggy (47:10):
Well, I-.
On a good day, I'll qualify no,no, no, no no, no, I actually
think that if you see my faceright now, I'm smiling and I'm
laughing.
I have fun at Valley Fest.
I enjoy meeting all thesponsors.
I enjoy finding out about mycommunity.
I'm very inquisitive.
I ask a lot of questions.
(47:31):
I have had opportunities tosell my city, to sell my
community and my schools, mywhere I live in my place, and
share that with everyone.
And I think the biggestpleasure I have are the smiles
on kids' faces and in manydifferent places.
So I'm just going to give you afew places where I've seen
(47:54):
these smiles.
A few years ago I went into asmall Indian owned gas station
in the valley and asked the manif I could put up posters about
Valley Fest and he went no, no,no, no, no posters, no posters.
And his kids were elementaryschool.
They were behind the counterand they heard the word Valley
(48:14):
Fest and they all popped up andwent Daddy, Daddy, this is
Valley Fest, we get to go downeverything.
Remember, Daddy, it's in thepark and it's free.
Daddy had no question afterthat that he was putting up the
poster.
His kids were so excited andthey shared a lot of memories
with me about the fun they hadand I thought, oh, that's good.
(48:38):
And I have three beautifulgrandchildren and they were at
the festival a couple of weeksago and they said grandma, we
love riding on golf carts.
Can we go on a golf cart ride?
Well, I'm not taking you on agolf cart ride, but your dad can
.
My children all grew upvolunteering at Valley Fest and
(49:02):
so they went on a golf.
They came back and they saidgrandma, we want you to start
the Junior Princess Program.
We want to be Junior Princesses.
You've got to start that rightnow.
And they were taking ownershipor involvement in their
community event.
They could see themselvesvolunteering at the event and
(49:24):
they could see themselvesparticipating in the parade.
They thought I could implementall of that for them.
But I think what it what thekids saw and we have a lot of
students that are in middleschool that volunteer at the
event that they're too old to do.
You know, do the petting zoo orthe face painting, but they
(49:45):
still all want to belong andparticipate in some fashion with
something that's fun and cool.
They can still be kids, butthey're not.
They're not grownups in there,you know, in between.
So they see themselvesbelonging to this, whether it be
my grandmother is got a golfcart I can ride around in.
(50:06):
But I said you know, this comeswith volunteering.
You're going to have to go outand pick up garbage if you're
going to go on the golf cartwith your dad.
And they went why?
And I said well, that's how hestarted.
He started going out picking upthe garbage with the park
employees and I said so there's,there's a lot of cleanup that
goes on at a festival and event.
(50:26):
Then you can come back and eatall the snacks you want, but you
know this is a given to takekind of thing.
But the kids have fun, thefamilies have fun, they like to
dance and they like to eat thefood and just be one of the
things I was going to refer backto you when you're talking
about the big festivals andeverything, I don't allow
(50:46):
generators or TVs at Valley Fest.
Jon (50:49):
Oh, interesting.
Peggy (50:52):
It's.
I feel like you can't visitwith people if you've got all
this noise going on, and thepurpose of this is to be
connected to people, and so weplace booths fairly close
together.
There are fire lanes and allthat there, but people are
visiting with each other andtalking to each other, and
that's the only way you're goingto get a healthy community if
(51:14):
you're talking to each other.
Jon (51:15):
That's really interesting.
No generators, right.
That's really unique and reallyinteresting.
Peggy (51:24):
They're noisy.
Jon (51:25):
It actually paints a picture in my mind.
The picture feels very peaceful.
Peggy (51:33):
Outside.
Tvs don't work, you can't see aTV screen and it's too.
You know everyone's got theircell phone yes, there's tons of
cell phones and everything.
This park that we have the onevenue, a Mirabu Point Park, and
then we have Center Place,regional Event Center, both very
large venues.
But Mirabu Point Park has nointernet and it has no night
(51:58):
lights.
It was designed that way, so Ihave to bring internet in in
order for the businesses to haveaccess to an internet
connection, and we have theastronomy clubs come out at
night because the sky is so darkat night you can actually see
things with the night scopes.
So there's pros and cons to allof this.
(52:19):
I mean you could probably havemore businesses doing business
with generators.
We have electricity, we put inportable dog houses and stuff,
but I have one or two generatorsin case something fails, which
has happened before, just incase we can continue on, save
the food, whatever.
But I don't allow the noise.
Jon (52:43):
That's the most interesting thing I've heard all week.
Peggy (52:47):
I'm quite.
I really like things organized.
I'm sorry, I'm just telling youthis, yeah.
Jon (52:54):
I want to enter the.
We're going to enter the randomquestion phase here, oh okay.
Picking up on the generatorstory.
What is your favorite sound?
Peggy (53:04):
Oh, my favorite sound.
Well, I like upbeat, happymusic, so things like Jeremiah
was a bullfrog.
You know that gets me dancingand kind of moving and
everything like that.
But a sound of nature isprobably water over a waterfall
(53:25):
or a creek or a river.
Jon (53:28):
That is the number one most common answer that people have
been responding to that questionwith.
Peggy (53:34):
Is the water which I find interesting, the water, sound
of water.
It's calming.
Jon (53:39):
Who's your favorite ancestor?
Peggy (53:44):
So are you referring to my immediate family?
Anyone in?
Jon (53:48):
your family throughout time .
Peggy (53:53):
There have been very strong women in my family over
the years we have had.
Many of them have had very longlives and I'm from a pioneer
family in Idaho.
My great great grandmother cameto the Waihe Mountains after
they worked on the railroad toUtah.
Then they found gold in theWaihe Mountains so they traveled
(54:16):
up and lived at Shoefly Creekand she had eight children and
they were a way station forhorses and the miners and the
priests and the people who wereworking in servicing the miners
and their camps up in themountains and she decided that
(54:40):
was not a life for her.
Before Idaho became a state shedivorced her husband and left
and moved to Boise and remarriedand my grandmother's her
daughter was very much involvedin building the Boise with her
husband and married a man whoadvocated for the right for
(55:03):
women to have the vote in Idaho.
I believe that he wasinfluenced in his decision by
reading the back records ofeverything.
For women to receive the rightto vote was because of my great
great grandmother and his wifeWinifred, and then his daughters
.
So I respect these women, theirpioneer spirit and their
(55:25):
courage to be strong in theirlife and education for their
children, all of their childrenlike great great grandmother
sent her children to boardingschools in Utah for education.
So I just really, as I'mreading the stories about this
and the family history, I reallyadmire those first early women
(55:48):
pioneers and their influence ongetting the women right to vote
in Idaho before it becamenationwide.
Jon (55:56):
That's a remarkable story.
Just sitting here thinkingabout the context and the time.
Wow.
Peggy (56:04):
I know it is a very.
I could go on and on about thisfamily history, but my when my
parents my daughter passed awayabout two years ago and my
mother before that my dad and Ihad gone through all of the
family records and so I actuallyhave in his handwriting what my
grandfather had written.
(56:25):
He was an attorney in Idaho andvery involved in the government
.
That was how he had to writethat.
He had to propose that at thetime Women weren't able to get
that moving forward, but if youlook at the women that he was
surrounded with, they're reallyyou know he was impacted by
(56:45):
their desire and education tomove this forward and for the
state of Idaho.
I could go on and put more ofthe strong women in the family.
Jon (56:54):
That's like a whole other episode.
Peggy (56:56):
I know the Idaho History Channel will be the next one.
Jon (57:01):
Last random question you walk into a nice cream shop.
You're going to get an creamcone, two scoops.
What are the flavors?
Peggy (57:11):
Oh, Huckleberry and chocolate.
Jon (57:20):
Which one goes on top.
Peggy (57:23):
Huckleberry goes on top.
Jon (57:25):
Why?
Peggy (57:26):
I don't know, sweet, tart , chocolate, chocolate.
You just finish this off.
Jon (57:36):
That's one of my favorite questions.
Peggy (57:38):
Is the ice cream?
Jon (57:39):
Yeah, sometimes the answer is pretty straightforward.
Other times we go off onanother little short adventure.
Okay, talking about that,you'll hear them as you listen
to some of the episodes.
Peggy (57:48):
Okay.
Jon (57:49):
Well, Peggy, thank you so much for your time today.
It's been a wonderfulconversation.
Peggy (57:54):
Well, thank you for having me, Jon, it's been a
pleasure.
This is Peggy Doering and you're listening to One Hour to
Doors.
Jon (00:07):
This is One Hour to Doors, a podcast about the business and
soul of the festivals andevents industry.
I am your host, john Stone.
Every episode of One Hour toDoors explores the people,
issues, insights and trendsimpacting the enterprise of
bringing people and communitiestogether in common cause.
We are recording today at theWashington Festivals and Events
(00:32):
Association annual conference,this year taking place in
Issaquah Washington.
Our guest today is PeggyDoering, executive Director of
Valley Fest in Spokane Valley,Washington.
Peggy is also a colleague ofmine and fellow past president
with WFEA.
Welcome to the show, Peggy.
Well, thank you for having me,Jon, it's my pleasure.
Peggy (00:52):
It's a beautiful day today.
Jon (00:56):
Tell us about Valley Fest.
Peggy (00:59):
Well Valley Fest just completed its 34th year of
producing a festival in the cityof Spokane Valley, Washington,
and the city of Spokane Valley,Washington this year also
celebrated its 20th anniversaryof being a city, so it's been
quite a journey watching ourcommunity grow over the last 34
(01:20):
years, since we started thefestival in a county park and
had 4,000 people attending thefirst year and having a hay bale
trailer being the main stageand one food vendor, which was
Domino's Pizza, to what we havetoday at Mirabu Point Park,
center Place, regional EventsCenter, Plants, ferry Park and
(01:42):
the Centennial Trail, WellesleyAvenue and a parade on Sprague
Avenue, usually pre-COVID.
We attract a 34,000 visitorsand guests to our events over
the three days of fun andfrivolity that we can provide to
those who come to the city ofSpokane Valley as tourists and
(02:04):
to the people who live and workand play in the area.
Jon (02:08):
You'll have to forgive my lack of geographic knowledge of
the greater Spokane area, butwhere is Spokane Valley relative
to the city of Spokane?
Peggy (02:18):
Good question, Jon.
I would like to take you on alittle walk around with me.
From the city of Spokane youhead east towards Cortoling, and
we are a valley between thecity of Spokane and the Idaho
border.
Oh, okay, it's kind of anebulous area because we also go
north and south and we includefour school districts in this
(02:41):
geographical area.
But the main connecting pointis I-90.
And if you are on I-90, youhave no idea of what you're
missing by just traveling theroad between Point A, which is
city of Spokane, and over to thebeautiful jewel in North Idaho
which is Cortoling.
So taking an exit off of thefreeway on Pines Road, I would
(03:05):
direct you north to the SpokaneRiver.
The Spokane River flows throughthe city of Spokane Valley, from
Idaho down into Spokane.
We have rural area, we haveparks, we have a centennial
trail, we have fishing, we havekayaking, we have lots of
(03:26):
outdoor activities along ourSpokane River, in addition to an
industrial area along the river, and recently the city of
Spokane Valley acquired 65 acresalong the river for future park
development.
So I always feel that we'refive minutes away in this
beautiful nature setting toenhance and to enrich our lives.
(03:48):
And forget about that.
Hurry, hurry, go, go, gobetween the two cities in the
freeway.
Also, off of Pines Road, youcan head south towards the city
center core, which we'redeveloping as a new city.
We have a city hall, awonderful Balfour Park, and
that's where our parade is, thecentered Onsberg Avenue.
(04:08):
So you really do have to leavethe freeway in order to see the
city of Spokane Valley.
But it has a lot to offer withour schools, our students are
the people that live there, andthen we also have a huge
shopping area in the city ofSpokane Valley that attracts
visitors from all over also.
Jon (04:30):
I want to ask is there significant population growth
occurring in that area thesedays?
Peggy (04:36):
Yes, when we became a city 20 years ago, I believe, we
were close to 78,000 residents,which was one of the largest
new cities that has ever formedin the United States.
In fact, the president.
In fact there's a proclamationthat was sent by the president
of the United States office atthat time, congratulating us on
that effort to bring managedgrowth and services to the
(05:01):
community, that he had relied oncounty services for a very long
time and so when the city wasformed everyone was financially
and fiscally very responsiblefor the city.
So it's a lot of contractservices there, which is a
little bit different to how tomanage a municipality in that
part of the state.
We did inherit all the parkproperty from the county.
(05:22):
And then and then we were.
In addition to that we hadother center place, regional
event center, and Mirber PointPark was being developed at the
time and then that was deededover to us.
We've acquired since then justI think in the last year Plants
Ferry Park, which is anothercounty park.
It's kind of shared with thecity but that has the soccer
(05:43):
fields and the baseball fieldson that property also.
Now our growth has grown to.
I believe we're close to130,000 families, huge growth in
apartments and finding livablespaces and services for people,
and also we are acquiringthrough World Relief and other
(06:06):
refugee associations.
Our city last year had 176 newresidents from outside the
United States and I believethey're on track for the same
number of families to come intoour city this year.
For my edification?
Jon (06:21):
Were you involved with the formation of Valley Fest?
Do you go that far back with it?
Peggy (06:28):
I was a PTA mom when Valley Fest was started by one
of my very good friends, sueDeLuke.
She and a group of neighborssat around the table in 1989 and
said what do we have to offerchildren and families in this
Boocan Valley?
The services, the nonprofitservices, were not extended into
(06:53):
the Valley at the time.
I'm talking campfire, boyScouts, girl Scouts, art, school
, services for health andwellness, that children needed
therapy services, etc.
And so we decided that it wouldjust.
Why don't we talk to the countyand to some other people,
leaders in the businesses in theValley, and see what they could
(07:16):
do for us?
And so a board was formed and acommittee was formed.
The county actually put a staffmember to help with planning
this in place.
For many years, until we becamea city, we always had a member
of the county parks departmenton our board.
I became involved because Sueasked me if I would help with
(07:37):
the food and if I could runcotton candy.
So I started out making cottoncandy at Valley Fest, right on.
You have to have fun.
And so I had these three.
Well, one was pretty young,about four or five, but I had
three children, and so I madethe cotton candy and then they
(07:58):
ran the front counter.
We probably wouldn't have thatrelationship today at our
festivals and fairs, having kidsmaking change and handing over
the cotton candy.
But it was slow, but we had alot of fun and a lot of spun
sugar.
Jon (08:14):
Your origin story into the festival is very different than
my origin story into thebusiness.
I like yours a lot bettercotton candy and was Valley Fest
.
Your first was that your entryinto the festivals and events
industry.
Peggy (08:29):
Yes, it was yeah, but we had fun.
I could see the benefit to thecommunity.
I could see that we were very,always, from the very beginning,
we included nonprofits to bethere for free or reasonable
amount of money if they provideda free activity for children
and Valley Fest was always meantto be free for kids to attend,
(08:50):
for the community to attend.
So we found sponsors for theinflatables and for the pony
rides and the nonprofits broughtcookie decorating or cookie
stack Oreo cookie stack.
The activities were provided bythe nonprofits and the stores
and businesses in the area andin doing so you are able to
communicate what they had tooffer and how to enroll your
(09:13):
children in these programs, howthat you didn't have to have a
lot of money to join.
There were some other servicesthat could help provide
enrichment so we could grow ahealthy group of people to
continue to work and play andstay in our community and not
leave or feel like there didn'thave any advantages there, and
(09:33):
that was always the main purposeof Valley Fest when I started,
and of course we've grown overthe years, we've added a lot of
components to that, but that'show it started.
Jon (09:44):
I've read somewhere a description of Valley Fest.
Two quotes kind of stuck withme.
The first one was a truecommunity festival, which I
don't think I've ever heard thatexact phrase before.
True, what does that mean?
And the other one is to serveas a bridge but that was a
driver of the festival to serveas a community bridge, of sorts.
(10:05):
I'm wondering if you've heardthose descriptions and, if so,
if you could elaborate on whatthat means in the local context.
Peggy (10:13):
A bridge.
I think that when you do nothave organized community or
location or place place is veryimportant in my thoughts that
you don't know where to seekinformation or you don't know
who to turn to.
So the school districts werereally important in getting
(10:35):
information out to children andfamilies.
But their business is education, maintaining school property.
So a bridge to that was thatpeople felt like they couldn't
communicate with the school orthey didn't know that there was
a baseball team or a soccerleague or something like
activities, how to get engagedwith this.
(10:57):
They wanted to have their kidsinvolved but they didn't want to
drive all the way into Spokane,which isn't that far, it's
relative.
It's space again, and place isvery important.
I was a room mother for years.
I would go with the thirdgraders on the bus into Spokane
to parks and recreation, theManitow Park and to Riverfront
(11:20):
Park and to the courthouse.
Many of the kids had never beenpast Havana Street and were
just shocked to see that theirworld had expanded.
So how do you bring that partof the world into their world
and what they know in theirplace and in their neighborhood?
And so that's what Valley FestI think is meant by a bridge for
(11:41):
people to communicate and tofeel comfortable in their place
of origin or their place ofemployment or their home life.
That's a bridge that you can say, oh yeah, I know that I can get
my kids involved in this.
Or gee, we need a therapy forspeech therapy or some type of
services that you heard aboutbut you didn't know how to
access it by having a booth or aperson there talking about it
(12:04):
and your kids are playing andyou go oh yeah, I got
information, now I know who tocontact.
Or I need new windows for myhouse.
You have a contact, you dobusiness with your friends, you
do business with people that youtrust and you know, and that's
another bridge that I think thecommunity looks forward to those
(12:25):
activities.
Jon (12:27):
The word connector comes to mind.
That's what I'm hearing.
The festival serves as aconnector.
I'm getting a picture in my mindof the community, just to your
excellent description.
It's making me think about it.
In South King County there is aphenomena where there are all
these different emergingcommunities two, three, four,
(12:51):
five or six differentcommunities and they're all very
vibrant and they're all verymuch existing in their own
bubble.
So you can have two communitiesnext door to each other,
adjacent to each other, butthere's not a lot of
cross-pollinization.
Everybody kind of lives intheir own bubble and I had a
client that was one of thosecommunities and my client had a
(13:12):
vision of a much more connected,larger whole community and they
were interested in what itwould take for them to be seen
by all as kind of that hub, thatconnector bridging all these
different communities.
And it was very, veryinteresting but I'm getting this
picture in my head at ValleyFest is kind of serving that
(13:32):
purpose in some ways.
Peggy (13:35):
Yes, we do.
Jon (13:36):
You said attendance prior to pandemic was up to about
34,000.
You took, I assume, at leastone year off from the pandemic.
Peggy (13:45):
Yes, we did.
We took 2020 off.
We did have a neighborhoodparade where we had a new police
chief that year so he led theparade.
We had cars.
Every one was sociallydistanced.
We had our royalty.
We invited about up to 20different organizations and
supporters in cars, like thefire truck and everything, and
(14:09):
we just went through theneighborhood parades on a
Saturday morning and broughtsome cheer, some levity out into
the neighborhoods that we felthad a density of children and
families that might enjoy comingout and getting candy and
surprised them with the parade.
But we also had people whowanted to in the parade, who
(14:31):
wanted to connect the mayor andthe police chief and the fire
department and our royalty andyou just kind of have some fun.
So we did that in 2020.
And then 2021, we had our cyclecelebration, but we also had to
cancel Valley Fest again thatyear.
So we have a bike ride in July,which is 11 years old.
(14:54):
That again was anotherconnector that came to us 11
years ago.
One of our former city councilmembers was very thrilled with
all of our bike lanes and bikeroutes in the city and our bike
trails that are identified asfamily friendly and
transportation movers.
So we wanted to have a 10, 25and 50 mile bike ride and it was
(15:17):
the 10th anniversary of thecity and I am a nonprofit, I
have sponsorship abilities andwe have an organization that
helps support his idea.
And they came with veryenthusiastic bike riders and
people who knew how to put on a10, 25 and 50 mile bike ride.
And so for 11 years we have donethe cycle celebration in the
(15:38):
Spokane Valley and collaboratedwith the city of Spokane Valley
and the county.
We're on county roads and on thestate park land the Centennial
Trail and have had a lot of fun.
So there's some things thathaven't worked with Valley Fest,
for we've tried ideas andthings haven't worked out over
(16:01):
the years.
But we work with a group ofpeople that are interested in
this, who come to us with ideasand they have volunteers.
They need help withorganization and a nonprofit
status.
They want to help us reach ourpeople to, or are the people
that live in the Spokane Valleyor the visitors kind of
(16:22):
showcasing what they have tooffer, what we all have in our
communities that are specialtalents or interests, and so by
bringing small parts of this toa larger event we're able to
help them with their activitiesor causes or business plans, and
so that is something thatValley Fest has done over the
(16:45):
years, and so cycle celebrationis in July it's the last Sunday
in July, but we have felt thatit's been very successful in
launching and bringing peopletogether and launching our
activities for the Valley Festevent, which is in September.
Jon (17:01):
But it sounds to me like Valley Fest is not only an event
promoter, but it's also avehicle for other folks, or?
Other entities to be able tomake their ideas come to life as
well.
Is that kind of accurate?
Peggy (17:18):
For several years I had a logging fest and we worked with
the Spokane Sports Commissionat the time.
They wanted to promote loggingsports.
We had a young woman I can'tremember her name right now but
she has won national awards andaround the world with her saw
(17:39):
and her acts and she's quite aninteresting person.
She went on to develop abusiness based on what she
learned in strength andendurance and so she's a very
successful business woman inSpokane now.
With her is a physical fitnessprogram.
But they came to us, the SportsCommission, and asked to do a
(17:59):
logging fest and so I startedlearning about logging.
I went out and actually wasintroduced to a cottonwood tree
in Hawaii.
It's a bad tree for chainsawsand we looked at what kind of
timber would be great for whatkind of trees I needed for the
pole climb and just a lot ofdifferent aspects.
(18:22):
So we created an arena, so tospeak, and we had a vista.
Come in and plant the tallpoles that we needed for the
pole climb.
We had water for the logrolling, we had targets for the
axe throwing, we had a lot ofchainsaws going and people loved
(18:43):
it.
But the problem with it was itwas a very limited number of
people who are actually intothis sport in Spokane region.
So we would have to pay quite abit of money for prizes and to
draw people in to do their teams.
And we had, like the crosscutsaw I mean I don't remember all
the names now John, it wasreally into timber sports.
(19:07):
It was very enjoyable but verytime consuming on my part.
And then when the organizer ofthat says, oh, I don't know if I
can continue this next year.
There was no one to take thatand so we let it go and it
didn't develop into what thesports commission and I had
hoped we could.
We didn't have the people tocontinue it.
Jon (19:29):
Didn't have the critical mass of all of Valley Fest.
What I'm hearing is a group ofessentially volunteers that you
all created something out ofnothing.
But what I'm not hearing whichis unusual if this is correct is
that what you didn't have atthe formation of all of this was
that seasoned event veteran,that visionary person.
(19:51):
It sounds like it was justtruly a grassroots community
effort A lot of trial and error.
Peggy (19:58):
Yes, is what I'm hearing learn as you go.
I would say that no one actuallyhas a degree in event
management.
What they have is a good heartand an interest in making their
community better and, as I'vesaid at many of my committee
meetings, no one in this roomhas.
(20:20):
It takes everybody's particularskill to make the whole thing
come together.
Ordinary people doingextraordinary things is how I
actually see it.
For one week or one weekend ayear, we have an event
coordinator who his job duringthe week is.
(20:41):
He works for a large automotiveparts store and he is managing
all the event staff and the movein and the move out of the
event.
He is assisted by a young manwho started volunteering when he
was in high school with us.
He's now an electrician workingfor an HVAC company and a young
family with small children andhe is the assistant event day
(21:05):
coordinator.
These people are wonderfulvolunteers.
They believe and love the eventand they always are thinking
about how to make it better andhow to improve it, and they take
ownership of this.
This is their event, this istheir community and they are
going forth with it.
(21:25):
And the same thing for we haveabout 26 committees with Valley
Fest, and so most people takethe ownership of it and they
feel guilty when they can't doit that year.
But you know you let people go.
They usually come back or theyfind someone to replace them
that can continue on Some of thechallenges we're going to have
(21:47):
this next year.
I just met with the volunteerswho did the multi-sport Sunday
triathlon, duathlon, 5k and 10Krace.
It's just overwhelming.
Now, with the, we were on theriver, we're on the road with
the bicycling and then we'reusing this intangible trail for
the 5K and 10K.
Well, scope, which is ourcommunity policing organization
(22:10):
that helps with road closuresand intersections, on Friday
night we have a parade.
So we use over 26 of themvolunteers on Friday night for
the parade and then on Saturdaythey are involved with the
Rockford Community Fair and thenon Sunday we asked them to come
back for road closures for thecycle.
(22:32):
And we just do not have enoughpeople to do it.
And so we have to look at youknow the numbers to see what we
can do.
Maybe we take it back for aperiod of time until we can
figure out what we're going todo the road is.
When we first started doingthis, the road wasn't very busy
on Sunday morning, but now, withall of the new housing
developments and apartmentcomplexes, this has put us in a
(22:54):
different situation that needsto be analyzed.
And do we really have that manypeople doing that part of the
event, or should we just focuson the 5K and the 10K and do it
that way?
This year we had 22 people onthe triathlon, which is kayaking
from Mirabu Park down to PlantsFerry Park, and then they
(23:15):
transitioned to the cycle and tothe running.
But is it putting all thosevolunteers out there for 22
people?
Is that what we really shouldbe doing?
So those are some things thatwe're talking about now as we're
going back and doing theanalysis of it.
We try to incorporate manyactivities that appeal to lots
of people to get something foreveryone.
(23:35):
It's kind of been our mottoreally early on.
It's impossible to do that, butwe have tried to do that over
the years.
Jon (23:43):
A question that I normally ask my guests on the show, my
festival producer guests, is whohas been your role model, who
has been your mentor in thebusiness?
But it sounds like everythingthat you have done you're
pioneering.
There wasn't the elderleadership in front of you, it's
(24:06):
like you and your team were thecreators.
The question that comes to mindis where have you drawn your
motivation to keep the machinerunning and evolving for so long
?
Peggy (24:17):
Well, there's a lot of parts to that question, Jon.
I don't know where to start,but when I first started was
1996, I became the chairman ofthe event when the founder, Sue
DeLukie, moved to the Tri-Cities.
I was the only person aroundthe table that day that did not
(24:37):
look at the floor, so Iinherited the job.
Jon (24:42):
I knew how that goes.
Peggy (24:44):
And at that point everyone gave a big sigh of
relief and said well, stay withyou for a year and help you out.
No one quit.
So they all stayed andsupported me and trusted me.
And there were some people thatwere very doubtful of this just
because of my lack ofexperience and going from cotton
candy PTA, like can she do this?
(25:07):
So at the time that thishappened there were some very
strong board members that hadbeen recruited to give this new
organization lift off and one ofthem was Greg Bever.
He was a community activist andleader and knew a lot of people
.
So I went and talked to him andhe could see I had no experience
(25:29):
with sponsorship.
I had no idea how to write agrant.
I could talk to people.
I wasn't really scared.
I mean, it only took threemonths to plan Valley Fest and
there's all.
These people are going to staywith me.
But I had to figure this out.
So he set me up with a meetingwith another volunteer and she
(25:54):
on the board and we went over tothe North Idaho Fair director,
who also was a member of ILEA,and she was a member of the
festival and associationindustry, which I didn't even
know existed, had no clue andshe saw how green I was and how
naive I was and how I neededassistance and she just poured
(26:17):
tons of knowledge in my head andput me into contact with people
in Idaho in the festival andevent association in Boise, and
Patty helped me with sponsorshipbecause she worked for a
grocery store chain thatsponsored Valley Fest, and so
(26:37):
the board of directors stayed,the volunteer stayed.
They could see how naive andgreen I was but I stayed and I
wrote the grants and I askedquestions and followed the
format that had been placedbefore me and everyone
congratulated me on coming.
(26:59):
You know we're getting ittogether that first year.
It was fun.
We had a lot of fun doing that.
People were appreciative of it.
They were glad to see that itdidn't go away when Sue left.
I mean, there was some probablydoubts that it wouldn't happen,
but I had great belief in thepeople who said they would stay
and help me and everyonefollowed through with what they
(27:21):
said they would do and I wasvery excited I got.
I wrote a grant to US Bank andwe got money and our budget was
pretty low at that time.
I might add.
It was like 15,000 to put thewhole thing on insurance and
everything.
So it was, oh well, that isn'tso bad, and so I signed on for
(27:45):
another year.
Jon (27:48):
And from your roots in cotton candy, I understand that
this year a panel of your peershas nominated you for induction
into the Washington Festival andEvent Association Hall of Fame.
Peggy (28:04):
Yes, they did.
Jon (28:05):
That's quite a journey.
Peggy (28:08):
It is amazing.
Jon (28:09):
How do you feel about that?
Peggy (28:12):
Oh, when I found out that I was being nominated and
inducted, I looked at the peoplewho went before me.
I couldn't believe it and I'mstill a little bit, you know,
not sure of that.
Jon (28:27):
Imposter syndrome.
Peggy (28:28):
Yes, yes, yes, thank you, thank you.
Jon (28:30):
There's a name for that.
Peggy (28:32):
You know, because from Spokane we have Hootfest and
Bloomsday, which are nationallyknown brands of events that are
put on for a specific audience.
A community festival organizerlike myself, I am basically a
volunteer with the organization.
(28:52):
I am not it's not it's abusiness, but it's in the
nonprofit realm.
We are giving a lot to thecommunity with the event and so,
yes, I am humbled and I'mgrateful, so at the same time,
to be entrusted, to be inductedinto the Hall of Fame.
Jon (29:14):
From my first years being a member of the Washington
Festival Event Association.
At the time I joined theorganization and got involved.
I at that time just happened tobe working for a major event
producer and I remember at theconferences, at the occasional
meetings, whenever themembership would get together,
(29:35):
there was this perpetual themefrom the small community events
that you know, all of theseeducational classes, all of this
talking and sharing of thingsthat are happening with the big
events.
That's all great but it's notreally relevant to what we're
doing.
We're just a small communityevent and I never bought into
(29:57):
that.
I always thought that was almosta tragic short-sightedness, for
two reasons.
One because and this has been,I've proven this out time and
time again over the years everyissue that's ever going to come
down the road and present achallenge or an opportunity to
the smallest, most remote ruralevents first impacts the big
(30:20):
ones and it always trickles down.
Sometimes it might take 10years before it trickles down,
or it might be next season, butit always trickles down.
So I always saw, I always sawWFBA as a way for the smaller
events, the morecommunity-oriented events, to
kind of get a little glimpseinto the crystal ball and see
what might be coming down theroad in the future and kind of
(30:43):
get a jumpstart on that.
But the other, probably the moreimportant aspect of it is that
at the end of the day we're alltrying to make an impact, we're
all trying to facilitate somesort of advancement of community
and that always shines thebrightest at the smaller
(31:03):
community level events.
In my opinion, the big eventshave all the literal bright
lights and they make the mostnoise again, literally and
figuratively, and they have themost zeros behind all the
numbers on their P&L and allthat.
But at the end of the day it'sjust a bunch of zeros.
None of that really matters.
What matters is the impact oncommunity and in that regard
(31:27):
there's no real scale for that.
We're all doing the same work.
Peggy (31:32):
Yes, we are.
I've learned a lot from theWFEA and from the very beginning
when I started going toconferences and meeting people,
this organization, this Festivaland Event Association, has been
very gracious in sharinginformation.
Absolutely, it's helpful topeople who are starting out with
(31:53):
a new Festival and Event,giving intuitive responses and
listening to your ideas andredirecting or showcasing or
telling you this is what youshould be doing, this is what
needs to be done.
This happened to me.
I don't want it to happen toyou.
Many, many conversations, bothin conferences and out of
conferences.
I've always felt that I canturn to this organization, to
(32:17):
the people that I've met aredoing the same type of work and
receive honest, true feedbackthat is given very generously.
There is a very uncompetitiveatmosphere.
I remember when I first came toSeattle for a conference it
must have been 20-some years agoI was in an elevator and this
(32:38):
man was talking to me and heactually ran a security company
and spoke hand.
He just took me aside and saidI want to help you.
That was Crowd ManagementServices, CMS, mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm Started talking to meabout security and things I
hadn't even thought about.
It made a huge impact on me thata large company like that was
(33:01):
not looking for me to come upwith a budget that would meet
what he would need to staff itwith, but he was interested in
making sure that my event wassafe and that I was doing the
right thing and I needed to knowthis information.
I have always taken andlistened to everyone at these
events planning sessions andoutside conversations or
(33:21):
luncheons or dinners andlistened to what people have
said and taken the good ideasback and talked to my board and
talked to the volunteers andsaid this is what we must do and
how we have to make thisstronger and safer for everyone
and, as you know, security rightnow is probably the biggest
challenge for all events,absolutely and numbers aren't
(33:45):
going to come back to festivalsand events without us reassuring
our customers, as you will, ourattendees, that they're safe
and that we are looking out foreverything we can to make their
experience fun and pleasurableand secure.
Jon (34:03):
If you'll indulge just a little tangent here, you
mentioned the CMS fellow in theelevator.
You said roughly 20 years agoor something like that.
That corresponds in the timelineperfectly with the
professionalization of thefestival and events industry
that has occurred roughly overthe last 20 or 25 years.
When I first got into thiscircus, there really wasn't that
(34:27):
much rules, regulations, codeon the books.
Events were just.
They weren't regulated orgoverned by any particular
authority or scheme.
You basically just kind of didwhat you wanted to do, and those
are really fun times andthey're also highly problematic
times.
And then, for whatever reason orreasons, around the mid 90s, at
(34:50):
least in the greater Seattlearea where I spent most of my
time, that started to shift andwe started to kind of self
professionalize as an industryFits and starts.
Two steps forward, one stepback, people all forward, other
people kind of against it.
But you fast forward to presentday and this is a legitimate
(35:11):
industry sector and society andgovernments and communities
expect us, they demand us, toconduct ourselves as such, and
so it sounds like the CMS fellowthat you remember was kind of
on the leading edge of that, andthat's again that's another
thing that WFEA is really strongin is that sharing of
information, regardless of thesize or scale or scope of your
(35:34):
event.
If you're in this long enough,you know that it's all going to
come around and affect everybodyand it doesn't do us.
It actually hurts us as anindustry now when there are bad
actors or innocent but naiveactors.
We can't afford to let thathappen.
We have to keep pushing theball forward in terms of
(35:55):
professionalism.
Peggy (35:58):
There's a lot of things I've learned and good ideas from
conferences and talking withother people that we have taken
back to our community and goneto our community sponsors, your
civic leaders, fire and policedepartments and we have been
able to adapt them to the rulesand regulations that we have in
(36:20):
our communities to make eventssafe, food vendors safe, our
stages safe for performers.
There's many safety featuresinvolved in the production of
the festival and I have to saythat we all work together on
making our plan work.
We have a very organized planthat's reviewed by the police
(36:41):
and the fire department, goesthrough our security private
security agencies that we use.
We just had our valley fest twoweeks ago.
We haven't quite had our recapwith everybody yet, but after
the event we go back overeverything that we had planned,
we evaluate it and makerecommendations for next year.
(37:02):
Some of the fun ideas I've comeback with from Valleyf est.
On entertainment the steam stemactivities A few years ago we
had a huge Lego presentation.
We went back and talked withour universities and school
districts in the Spokane region.
Now we started it prior toCOVID, but the last two years
(37:27):
I'm going to refer to Our steamactivities have been extremely
popular at our festival.
I want you to remember thatthis is a community festival, so
it's not just a one-themesituation.
I mean we have dogs, steam cars, pancake breakfast runs, walks,
booths.
(37:47):
I mean there's a lot of thingsgoing on here, a lot of moving
parts going on here, but steam,I think, has been one of the
biggest and most fun challengesthat we've had in bringing
industry and businesses,bringing activities for 10 to
15-year-olds to participate in,and what we have said to them is
(38:07):
that this is your futureworkforce.
We have a lot of activities forchildren under the age of 10,
but by the time they reach nineor 10, they've done everything,
and so we need to encourage thisnext level.
And so the businesses havestepped up with lots of
interactive activities that theyactually have created at their
(38:29):
business.
I'm going to pick on one.
Wagstaff Engineering is a metalmanufacturing I don't know
manufacturer in Spokane.
It's huge.
They have made their modelsdown so where kids can pour
molten chocolate through andthen they have a chocolate bar
at the end.
Awesome, and it's fascinatingfor both parents and kids to be
(38:51):
interactive with these womenscientists and engineers and men
engineers from Wagstaff.
But they are working with theirfuture workforce.
Everyone's excited about it.
It's an activity at Valleyf est.
Again, they're already planninghow to make one part of this
bigger and better for next year,and so it's fun to see the
(39:13):
successes.
I've talked about things thatkind of we started and then, for
whatever reason, we had neededto stop it, but then we keep
looking for other ideas ortrends that we can bring into
the festival.
What we have in our communitythat can be showcased and
developed.
Jon (39:30):
A very similar concept to my recent episode with Robin
Kelly, and one of my questionsfor Robin is how, in the heck as
Issaquah Salmon Days stayed aspopular, stayed as current,
stayed as contemporary today asit was 30-some odd years ago,
especially given theextraordinary change in the
(39:51):
community of Issaquah populationgrowth, demographic shift.
It's extraordinary, yet SalmonDays through it all just keeps
humming right along.
And she told a very similarstory about how every year they
have to look at nothing sacred,I guess is one of her main
themes.
They take really hard, honest,open looks at all these
(40:13):
activities, no matter howbeloved they are at the time.
And every year some things goand some new things come in.
And it's never an easy process,she said, but it works, it's
effective.
Peggy (40:24):
You do, and there's more people moving in.
They have other ideas they'rebringing from other communities
that they would like to see atyour festival.
Before COVID, I started workingwith some multicultural
organizations in Spokane andSpokane region and we started
planning our multiculturalfestival.
Within the festival, we'dalways had had entertainment on
(40:48):
our stages from these differentgroups, but I felt we were now
needing to open this up to wheretheir organizations and groups
should be telling more of theirstory and taking more ownership
of parts of the festival.
And so last year we did amulticultural Sunday up at
Center Place Regional EventCenter and it worked out well
(41:12):
for our first time since COVIDdoing this.
But they wanted to be includedmore into the center of the
festival, which is we have liketwo or three venues here.
So if you're not having beenthere, I'm just trying to
visually transplant you.
So we listened to theirevaluations last year.
So this year we moved them intoMirabu Point Park where we have
(41:32):
over 250 booths and twoentertainment stages and there's
a larger audience and it'sSaturday and Sunday incorporated
these booths into a villagethis year and included more
entertainment.
I think it worked out fine.
I haven't heard too much aboutit yet.
We haven't had our postevaluation, but my observation
(41:53):
is maybe I moved too fast, toosoon to two days for some of
these small nonprofits to beable to staff a booth for two
days.
So I'm interested to see whattheir evaluation is going to be,
but I do know that they werevery excited and felt very
welcome.
We want to have thatcontinuation of how we can put
(42:14):
more of that into the festivaland then be more inclusive.
Our population is changing.
We need to be aware of the factthat we are now pushing past
130,000 people in the city ofSpokane Valley and we need to be
aware of who all we have.
We're not the same community wewere 34 years ago of people
(42:39):
basically graduating from highschool going to work for Kaiser
or the lumber industries orstaying there and their children
going to the same schools.
Now there's a lot of people whoare coming in with different
interests in food or differentinterests in shopping or customs
, and we need to be aware ofthem and help them find their
(43:00):
place in the community too andfeel a sense of belonging.
So that's kind of anotherchallenge that I'm looking at to
see how we can work with ourcommunity partners on this and
listen to their advice and moveforward with what we can do, and
then other people can comealongside all of us and help us
(43:22):
grow, and help the people thatare attending and the businesses
.
Jon (43:27):
It's that balance of tradition and the need for new
routes Exactly Very common themethese days.
I don't know if you want totalk about this.
If you do, great, if not,that's great as well.
Last night we were chatting fora little bit and you floated
the notion that perhaps youmight not keep driving the ship
(43:51):
at Valley Fest forever and thatyou're starting to think about
things like succession planningand what the future looks like.
And how does that even?
How would that transition, evenwhat would that look like?
Peggy (44:06):
That is a question I receive a lot.
I've been doing this for a longtime and I think people just
assume I'm going to continue on.
But people are asking questions, and by people I mean the City
of Spokane Valley EconomicDevelopment Office and the City
of Spokane Valley Parks andRecreation.
My board has been asking mealso the same question.
(44:26):
The answer is I still enjoywhat I'm doing, but we do need
to think about how we cansuccessfully transition this to
keeping it as a community eventthat's free and open to the
public, engaging children andfamilies and serving the
community with the currentmission statement that we have.
(44:48):
So there are some variablesthere.
So I still haven't given upthose reins on guiding people
with the vision that we startedwith when we're trying to
continue.
But I do know that I have to bereplaced and we need to find an
answer for that, and I'mworking with the City of Spokane
(45:11):
Valley.
I don't know if we can separate.
I personally have to separatemy Peggy Doering from ValleyFest
and make sure that ValleyFestcan continue without Peggy, and
I think a lot of people.
I think I have to help peoplewith that struggle, and so
that's what I think we weretalking about last night is how
(45:33):
to transition this into afreestanding, non-profit event
that I've given a lot of timeand heart to, obviously, but
there are a lot of good peopleout there that want to see it
continue.
Jon (45:46):
Is it the board's responsibility to find that
answer?
Peggy (45:49):
Whalen Traditionally, yes , I would say that would be it,
but they're just as lost as I amsometimes on the questions
because we don't know how tofind the financing to have a
paid Executive Director.
Jon (46:04):
I see.
Peggy (46:04):
So it's the funding.
Funding is key here.
Jon (46:11):
Well, if there's a silver lining to that conundrum, I
would point to population growth.
You know, at least withpopulation growth in theory at
least along with that comesfunding opportunities.
Yes, some way, some way.
Peggy (46:30):
We are looking and talking with a lot of our
partners currently to see how wecan do that, and there are a
lot of models in this state thatmight work with a public
private funding mechanism andwith Parks and Recreation
Departments and non-profit boardof directors.
(46:51):
There are some models out therethat we might be able to use.
Jon (46:58):
After all of these years with this event, what enables
you to get out of bed in themorning and get right back to it
?
Peggy (47:10):
Well, I-.
On a good day, I'll qualify no,no, no, no no, no, I actually
think that if you see my faceright now, I'm smiling and I'm
laughing.
I have fun at Valley Fest.
I enjoy meeting all thesponsors.
I enjoy finding out about mycommunity.
I'm very inquisitive.
I ask a lot of questions.
(47:31):
I have had opportunities tosell my city, to sell my
community and my schools, mywhere I live in my place, and
share that with everyone.
And I think the biggestpleasure I have are the smiles
on kids' faces and in manydifferent places.
So I'm just going to give you afew places where I've seen
(47:54):
these smiles.
A few years ago I went into asmall Indian owned gas station
in the valley and asked the manif I could put up posters about
Valley Fest and he went no, no,no, no, no posters, no posters.
And his kids were elementaryschool.
They were behind the counterand they heard the word Valley
(48:14):
Fest and they all popped up andwent Daddy, Daddy, this is
Valley Fest, we get to go downeverything.
Remember, Daddy, it's in thepark and it's free.
Daddy had no question afterthat that he was putting up the
poster.
His kids were so excited andthey shared a lot of memories
with me about the fun they hadand I thought, oh, that's good.
(48:38):
And I have three beautifulgrandchildren and they were at
the festival a couple of weeksago and they said grandma, we
love riding on golf carts.
Can we go on a golf cart ride?
Well, I'm not taking you on agolf cart ride, but your dad can
.
My children all grew upvolunteering at Valley Fest and
(49:02):
so they went on a golf.
They came back and they saidgrandma, we want you to start
the Junior Princess Program.
We want to be Junior Princesses.
You've got to start that rightnow.
And they were taking ownershipor involvement in their
community event.
They could see themselvesvolunteering at the event and
(49:24):
they could see themselvesparticipating in the parade.
They thought I could implementall of that for them.
But I think what it what thekids saw and we have a lot of
students that are in middleschool that volunteer at the
event that they're too old to do.
You know, do the petting zoo orthe face painting, but they
(49:45):
still all want to belong andparticipate in some fashion with
something that's fun and cool.
They can still be kids, butthey're not.
They're not grownups in there,you know, in between.
So they see themselvesbelonging to this, whether it be
my grandmother is got a golfcart I can ride around in.
(50:06):
But I said you know, this comeswith volunteering.
You're going to have to go outand pick up garbage if you're
going to go on the golf cartwith your dad.
And they went why?
And I said well, that's how hestarted.
He started going out picking upthe garbage with the park
employees and I said so there's,there's a lot of cleanup that
goes on at a festival and event.
(50:26):
Then you can come back and eatall the snacks you want, but you
know this is a given to takekind of thing.
But the kids have fun, thefamilies have fun, they like to
dance and they like to eat thefood and just be one of the
things I was going to refer backto you when you're talking
about the big festivals andeverything, I don't allow
(50:46):
generators or TVs at Valley Fest.
Jon (50:49):
Oh, interesting.
Peggy (50:52):
It's.
I feel like you can't visitwith people if you've got all
this noise going on, and thepurpose of this is to be
connected to people, and so weplace booths fairly close
together.
There are fire lanes and allthat there, but people are
visiting with each other andtalking to each other, and
that's the only way you're goingto get a healthy community if
(51:14):
you're talking to each other.
Jon (51:15):
That's really interesting.
No generators, right.
That's really unique and reallyinteresting.
Peggy (51:24):
They're noisy.
Jon (51:25):
It actually paints a picture in my mind.
The picture feels very peaceful.
Peggy (51:33):
Outside.
Tvs don't work, you can't see aTV screen and it's too.
You know everyone's got theircell phone yes, there's tons of
cell phones and everything.
This park that we have the onevenue, a Mirabu Point Park, and
then we have Center Place,regional Event Center, both very
large venues.
But Mirabu Point Park has nointernet and it has no night
(51:58):
lights.
It was designed that way, so Ihave to bring internet in in
order for the businesses to haveaccess to an internet
connection, and we have theastronomy clubs come out at
night because the sky is so darkat night you can actually see
things with the night scopes.
So there's pros and cons to allof this.
(52:19):
I mean you could probably havemore businesses doing business
with generators.
We have electricity, we put inportable dog houses and stuff,
but I have one or two generatorsin case something fails, which
has happened before, just incase we can continue on, save
the food, whatever.
But I don't allow the noise.
Jon (52:43):
That's the most interesting thing I've heard all week.
Peggy (52:47):
I'm quite.
I really like things organized.
I'm sorry, I'm just telling youthis, yeah.
Jon (52:54):
I want to enter the.
We're going to enter the randomquestion phase here, oh okay.
Picking up on the generatorstory.
What is your favorite sound?
Peggy (53:04):
Oh, my favorite sound.
Well, I like upbeat, happymusic, so things like Jeremiah
was a bullfrog.
You know that gets me dancingand kind of moving and
everything like that.
But a sound of nature isprobably water over a waterfall
(53:25):
or a creek or a river.
Jon (53:28):
That is the number one most common answer that people have
been responding to that questionwith.
Peggy (53:34):
Is the water which I find interesting, the water, sound
of water.
It's calming.
Jon (53:39):
Who's your favorite ancestor?
Peggy (53:44):
So are you referring to my immediate family?
Anyone in?
Jon (53:48):
your family throughout time .
Peggy (53:53):
There have been very strong women in my family over
the years we have had.
Many of them have had very longlives and I'm from a pioneer
family in Idaho.
My great great grandmother cameto the Waihe Mountains after
they worked on the railroad toUtah.
Then they found gold in theWaihe Mountains so they traveled
(54:16):
up and lived at Shoefly Creekand she had eight children and
they were a way station forhorses and the miners and the
priests and the people who wereworking in servicing the miners
and their camps up in themountains and she decided that
(54:40):
was not a life for her.
Before Idaho became a state shedivorced her husband and left
and moved to Boise and remarriedand my grandmother's her
daughter was very much involvedin building the Boise with her
husband and married a man whoadvocated for the right for
(55:03):
women to have the vote in Idaho.
I believe that he wasinfluenced in his decision by
reading the back records ofeverything.
For women to receive the rightto vote was because of my great
great grandmother and his wifeWinifred, and then his daughters
.
So I respect these women, theirpioneer spirit and their
(55:25):
courage to be strong in theirlife and education for their
children, all of their childrenlike great great grandmother
sent her children to boardingschools in Utah for education.
So I just really, as I'mreading the stories about this
and the family history, I reallyadmire those first early women
(55:48):
pioneers and their influence ongetting the women right to vote
in Idaho before it becamenationwide.
Jon (55:56):
That's a remarkable story.
Just sitting here thinkingabout the context and the time.
Wow.
Peggy (56:04):
I know it is a very.
I could go on and on about thisfamily history, but my when my
parents my daughter passed awayabout two years ago and my
mother before that my dad and Ihad gone through all of the
family records and so I actuallyhave in his handwriting what my
grandfather had written.
(56:25):
He was an attorney in Idaho andvery involved in the government
.
That was how he had to writethat.
He had to propose that at thetime Women weren't able to get
that moving forward, but if youlook at the women that he was
surrounded with, they're reallyyou know he was impacted by
(56:45):
their desire and education tomove this forward and for the
state of Idaho.
I could go on and put more ofthe strong women in the family.
Jon (56:54):
That's like a whole other episode.
Peggy (56:56):
I know the Idaho History Channel will be the next one.
Jon (57:01):
Last random question you walk into a nice cream shop.
You're going to get an creamcone, two scoops.
What are the flavors?
Peggy (57:11):
Oh, Huckleberry and chocolate.
Jon (57:20):
Which one goes on top.
Peggy (57:23):
Huckleberry goes on top.
Jon (57:25):
Why?
Peggy (57:26):
I don't know, sweet, tart , chocolate, chocolate.
You just finish this off.
Jon (57:36):
That's one of my favorite questions.
Peggy (57:38):
Is the ice cream?
Jon (57:39):
Yeah, sometimes the answer is pretty straightforward.
Other times we go off onanother little short adventure.
Okay, talking about that,you'll hear them as you listen
to some of the episodes.
Peggy (57:48):
Okay.
Jon (57:49):
Well, Peggy, thank you so much for your time today.
It's been a wonderfulconversation.
Peggy (57:54):
Well, thank you for having me, Jon, it's been a
pleasure.
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