34th Annual Sutherlin Blackberry Festival Starts Today

The annual Blackberry Festival in Sutherlin started this morning at 8:30 a.m. with the annual golf tournament. The community event brings people together with classic cars and motorcycles, mud sports, tournaments backyard games, cooking contests, BMX bike races, music and dancing, pets, and mud races. This is the 34th anniversary of the festival. It will culminate with a raffle prize drawing on Monday. The top prize this year is a 1947 Ford Coupe. The car cruise will close down Central Avenue on Saturday night. Alternate routes can be found on the festival website listed below. Below are the events. All events are free to view, except for the mud races that cost $5 for people over 8 years old, and have varying costs for registration fees. If a location is not listed, it will be held at Central Park. For more information, visit www.blackberry-festival.com. Friday 5 p.m. Cruise in hosted by Double R Powder Coating at 1240 Page Ave. 7 p.m. Live Music by Garry Allyn Saturday 6-10 a.m. Blackberry Show and Shine 7-10 a.m. Pancake Breakfast at the Sutherlin Senior Center at 202 E Central Avenue. 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Swap Meet at CWI Auto Sales at 11-1 S Comstock 7:30 a.m. Mud Volleyball registration 8 a.m. BMX registration 9 a.m. * Mud Volleyball * Cornhole Tournament Registration at 303 W Central Ave 10 a.m. * Opening Ceremonies Show and Shine begins and booths open * BMX Bike Races * Cornhole Tournament * Blackberry Cooking Contest at the community building 11 a.m. Blackberry Cooking Contest judging and awards 2:30 p.m. BMX Trophies and Prizes 4 p.m. Show and Shine awards 6:30-9:30 p.m. Classic Car Cruise on Central Avenue between Dollar Tree and Bi-Mart 7-9 p.m. Live music and dance at Lauren Young Tires Sunday 6-10:30 a.m. Mud Races registration 9 a.m. * Church Service in the Park by Abe Mantle * Swap Meet at CWI Auto Sales at 1101 S Comstock * Motorcycle Show Registration - ends at noon 10 a.m. Chili Cookoff in the community building 11 a.m. * Pet Pie Eating Contest * Mud Races Start * Chili judging and awards in the community building 12 p.m. Motorcycle Show with motor cards for people’s choice and kid’s choice at the pavilion 1 p.m. Diaper Derby 4:30 p.m. Motorcycle Show awards and raffle ticket drawing. *** Photos are from the Sutherlin Blackberry Festival website and Facebook page. The first photo is the winner of last year's raffle, Donna Wiser of Sutherlin who won the 1932 Ford.