Marysville festival makes merry Saturday

MARYSVILLE – Officials hope to create holiday magic at the city’s annual Merrysville for the Holidays winter festival on Saturday.

The festival features an electric light parade, holiday food and music from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Comeford Park, between State and Delta avenues and Fifth and Sixth streets.

It begins with the parade of vehicles and floats bedecked with holiday lights down State Avenue, arriving at the park.

After the parade, the lighting of the water tower officially will usher in the holiday season, city spokesman Doug Buell said.

The city also will show off the park’s newest addition. The Marysville Sunrise Rotary Club Pavilion, in the center of the park, will be used as a concert stage for The Brian Waite Band, which will perform holiday tunes.

Santa will be the special guest and will be available for parents to take photos of their children with him, beginning about 7 p.m.

“Merrysville for the Holidays is an event that brings our community together at a special time of the season, and to celebrate the meaning of the holidays with friends and neighbors,” city parks director Jim Ballew said.

In the Ken Baxter Senior Community Center, a variety of savory treats, hot drinks and crafts will be for sale. Proceeds will benefit the center’s activities.

Outside the center, the Lions Club’s bonfire will help festival participants keep warm.

The Marysville Downtown Merchants Association is sponsoring The Spirit of Christmas Past on Third Street before the festival begins. Sponsors urge people to support Operation Marysville Community Christmas by bringing nonperishable food items and new, unwrapped gifts to donate. Those items will be distributed to needy families before Christmas.

Merrysville for the Holidays is sponsored by the Marysville Parks and Recreation Department, Kiwanis Club and Lions Club.

For more information, call the parks department at 360-651-5085.

Reporter Cathy Logg: 425-339-3437 or logg@heraldnet.com.