Loyalty Days weekend opens the Peninsula summer season<\/p>\n
Published 9:07 pm Wednesday, April 29, 2026<\/p>\n
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Complete with their Fishermen mascot, the Ilwaco High School marching band contributed a melodious sound and smart appearance to the 2025 Loyalty Days parade.<\/p>\n
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The Astoria Clowns have made their presence felt in an extremely silly manner for as long as anyone can remember.<\/p>\n
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The Woodland Planters Days jeep and royalty is a regular sight at the Long Beach event.<\/p>\n
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Ruary Schimelpfenig, now a junior, was among those adding some \u201coomph\u201d in the trombone section of the Ilwaco High School marching band during the 2025 Loyalty Days parade.<\/p>\n
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The Viking Nordic Folk Dancers from Astoria cross the river annually to appear in the parade and promote the annual Astoria Scandinavian Midsummer Festival.<\/p>\n
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The Loyalty Days are peppered with whimsical fun.<\/p>\n
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The Lariettes Drill Team from Tacoma is a precision drill equestrian group founded in 1946 whose members appear in Long Beach.<\/p>\n
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((Head)). \u00a0Loyalty Days weekend opens the Peninsula summer season<\/p>\n
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((Byline)) By PETER KORCHNAK<\/p>\n
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For its 76th year and running, The Loyalty Days celebration has been held on the first weekend in May since 1950. The events are part of opening the summer season on the Long Beach Peninsula. Organizers expect hundreds of locals and visitors to watch the festivities. All Loyalty Days events are free to the public<\/p>\n
\u201cLoyalty Days is a beloved tradition where the community gets together and enjoys the parade and honors our servicemen and women,\u201d said Jenna Austin, member of the organizing team, representing the Ilwaco Merchants Association.<\/p>\n
The festivities will open in Ilwaco May 2, with the Children\u2019s Parade themed, \u201cThe Constitution.\u201d The Children\u2019s Parade, state the organizers, is \u201cnot just for kids but also for the young at heart.\u201d Kids can enter the parade for free, and other family-friendly, non-political groups by donation, with day-of registration available.<\/p>\n
Along with the opening of the Ilwaco Saturday Market, following the Parade there will be the blessing of the fleet, sponsored by the Ilwaco Charter Association, with free boat rides offered to visitors on the first-come-first-served basis. Both events are an indelible part of the Loyalty Days tradition, said Austin.<\/p>\n
The Sunday Grand Parade will weave through downtown Long Beach beginning at 1 p.m. Between 50 and 100 floats, marching bands from all over Washington, drill and teams, classic cars, military and veterans groups, emergency responders, elected officers, and other community groups and organizations participate in the parade each year (participation requires registration).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quite a grand parade,\u201d said Austin, who acts as the parade emcee. \u201cMy favorite part is the bands.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the floats is designated for the winners of the re-established Loyalty Days Court Pageant, held the weekend prior at the Chinook School. A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter will perform flyovers at both parades, unless called to duty. U.S. Air Force Major Gen. Randolph Staudenraus is expected to serve as grand marshal.<\/p>\n
Ilwaco artist Don Nisbett was again commissioned to create a piece of art commemorating the parade. The painting depicts representatives of all branches of the military as well as George Washington coming ashore in a boat named \u201cWe the People.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Long Beach Loyalty Days will be held in conjunction with the statewide celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n
The holiday originated in the early Cold War era when it served nationwide as a counter to the Soviet-driven International Workers\u2019 (or Labor) Day. In 1950, Loyalty Day was declared as a state holiday in Oregon. In 1955 President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared the first federal Loyalty Day, and in 1958 Congress designated it an annual federal holiday, \u201cfor the reaffirmation of loyalty to the United States and the recognition of the heritage of American freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Only about a dozen towns across the United States mark the holiday, Long Beach being the only one in Washington state and Newport in Oregon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe we\u2019re the longest running Loyalty Days parade in the U.S.\u201d said Austin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Loyalty Days weekend opens the Peninsula summer season Published 9:07 pm Wednesday, April 29, 2026 0430 CW Loyalty1.jpg…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-292579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}