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Cherry Festival brings cherries, fun

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POLSON — Dark red sweet cherries are ripening around Flathead Lake, just in time for the Flathead Cherry Festival held on July 18 and 19 in downtown Polson. On Saturday the festival goes from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Welcoming visitors and residents alike will be a new mural painted on the east wall of the Lake City Bakery. Mural artist Barbara Beighle-Buchli painted the two-story rough brick canvas with cherry branches and blossoms, a vintage car and an artist’s hand and brush to represent some of Polson’s summertime events.  

Co-sponsored by the Polson Business Community and the Flathead Cherry Growers, the cherry festival offers all things cherry — Flathead cherries by the pound or by the box, pies homemade by the Montecahto and Yellow Bay ladies, cherry aprons, cherry foods, cherry jewelry, cherry pit spitting contests, cherry pie eating contests and cherry stem tying contests — and a Flathead cherry recipe contest. 

Main Street will be wall-to-wall vendors and food booths during the festival. 

Should a person tire of shopping and eating, Flathead Lake is only a block from downtown and just the place to take a refreshing dip before heading back to the fun.

Saturday evening’s street dance will feature music from Southern Comfort and goes from 6 to 10 p.m. The dance will be on Second Street in front of The Cove Deli.

Events at the cherry festival include the cherry pie-eating contest for children and adults in front of Jackie M’s Footwear. 

The cherry stem tying contest requires a sense of dexterity, and anyone can enter this contest in front of The Cove Deli and Pizza. 

If spitting is more your sport, sign up for the pit spitting contest. Adults and children both have a chance, and the contests will be held in front of The Cove Deli and Pizza. Children go at 2 p.m., and adults spit at 3 p.m. with the cherry stem-tying concert at 4 p.m.

Other contests include the cherry cooking contest, where cooks can bring four samples of a cherry dish to Jackie M’s Footwear at 1 p.m. on July 20. 

Children’s pie eating begins at 3 p.m., and adults belly up at 3:30 p.m. 

See you at the Cherry Festival in downtown Polson.

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