MILTON-FREEWATER — For some, the taste of summer in Eastern Oregon is watermelon.

To celebrate summer and community, people can attend Milton-Freewater’s Weekend at the Blues, a free music festival featuring food, crafts and contests, including a watermelon eating contest for youths and one for adults. The festival takes place annually and will be Aug. 2-3 this year.

“It’s lots of fun,” said festival Chair Kim Munk. “People really enjoy that event.”

The festival first started in 1904 as a horse show, according to its website. Throughout the century, it’s seen many variations, including a pea festival, a cherry day and a harvest festival. Most recently, since COVID-19, the festival has also had a rodeo associated with it, though that isn’t happening this year.

Munk said she’s been involved with the festival on and off since 1986.

“I like the community to have a festival and it’s just fun,” she said. “Nobody else was doing it, so I thought I would just step up.”

Weekend at the Blues schedule

Before the weekend, people can sign up for a city-wide yard sale, which runs Friday, Aug. 1, through Sunday, Aug. 3. Attendees will receive a map with all the locations participating in the sale.

On Aug. 2, the music festival runs from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., starting with a fun run at 8 a.m. followed by a community breakfast from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. hosted by the Milton-Freewater Chamber Downtown Alliance.

The rest of the day features 3×3 basketball at 9 a.m.; a pretty baby contest at 10 a.m., when most vendors open; the watermelon eating contest at 1 p.m.; and live music and dance performances by Jerry Stadler (1 p.m.), Steppin Country (4 p.m.), Feedback (5 p.m.) and Color Blind (7:30 p.m.).

Aug. 3 kicks off with another community breakfast 8-10 a.m., this time hosted by the Milton-Freewater Youth Cheer Squad, followed by a church service and 3×3 basketball again at 9 a.m. Then, the youth cheer squad will perform at 10 a.m. and vendors will reopen for the day.

Day two of the event features many Latin music and performances, which Munk said are important because so much of the Milton-Freewater community has Latino roots.

At 11 a.m., El Color de México dance group from Walla Walla performs. Then, at noon, a water fight will take place while Los Misiles plays music.

One of the main attractions Aug. 3 will be the old-fashioned “Anything Goes” contests, Munk said. The competitions will include a sack race, balloon race, three-legged race, corn husking race and even a bed race.

The bed race is for adults only. Each team has to run across a designated area, make a bed, push it back to their teammates, have someone hop on, and then push the bed and teammate back across the finish line.

Munk said her husband has been adding handles and putting wheels on the bed frames himself in preparation for the competition.

While the contests take place, the band Grupo Serta will perform starting at 2 p.m, and as soon as the Anything Goes competitions are over, a roasted corn feed will begin.

The festival concludes at 4 p.m. on Aug. 3.

“My main point in a festival is having the community come together and have something to be proud of,” Munk said. “I just want them to come and enjoy the festivities.”