Turkey Rama, McMinnville's annual two day summer festival, is scheduled for Friday, July 11 and Saturday, July 12, 2008 in historic downtown McMinnville and at East Wortman Park and other locations throughout town. This city-wide celebration, the largest in Yamhill County, offers activities for everyone to enjoy. An outdoor concert, Farmer’s Market and Carnival will be held on Thursday, July 10, to precede the primary festival activities.
Each year thousands of people flock to McMinnville for the food, fun and entertainment. The community festival observes the historical importance of the once thriving turkey business in the surrounding county. McMinnville is located on Highway 99W 35 miles southwest of Portland and 30 miles northwest of Salem.
This year's event, themed “The Turkeys, They are a Changin’!” plays off the song by Bob Dylan, The Times They are a Changin’, and alludes to the exciting changes to this year’s festival. After 47 years of sponsoring Turkey Rama, the McMinnville Area Chamber of Commerce is sharing sponsorship this year with the McMinnville Downtown Association. The McMinnville Downtown Association is organizing the downtown vendor booths, and activities located in historic downtown.
Downtown Festival at Turkey Rama: Patrons of the Downtown Festival at Turkey Rama will be able to stroll down beautiful tree lined Third Street from Baker to Galloway Streets and enjoy over 150 booths featuring arts-and-crafts, sidewalk sales, as well as local commercial and food vendors. Downtown vendor booths will be open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday.
Other activities new this year to the Downtown Festival at Turkey Rama:
- Artist’s Village, featuring area artists and their work
- More live music and entertainment, including the Ty Curtis Band Friday night and the Norman Sylvester Band Saturday night.
- Kids Zone which will include a climbing wall and a bouncing structure
- Winemakers Dinner featuring a seven course dinner paired with wines, Friday night, 6-8 p.m.
- The Green Zone that will focus on sustainable companies and technologies.
The Famous Turkey Barbecue: For those seeking out “turkey”, The Famous Turkey Barbecue is held at East Wortman Park, Saturday, July 12, with extended hours, 11 a.m. to 7 pm. The barbeque features fresh barbecued turkey, prepared on-site. Guests can order a turkey dinner or a fully cooked barbecued turkey-half to take home. Turkey dinners include a generous portion of turkey, potato salad and coleslaw, dinner roll, watermelon, cake and soft drinks. Turkey dinners are priced at $12.00 for adults, $8.00 for seniors and $6.00 for children. Fully cooked barbecued turkey halves are $15.00 each. Turkey halves can be purchased at four locations around town: the Barbecue site at Wortman Park (11 a.m. until sold out), Town Center / Rite-Aid shopping center (starting at 9 a.m to 2 p.m.), at the downtown festival on Third and Davis Streets (Noon until sold out), and at the Lowe’s Home Improvement parking lot (10 a.m.- 3 p.m.).
This year a Kids Play Place featuring old-fashioned picnic games like a ring toss and “go-fish” will also be available this year to entertain families who come to Wortman Park for a tasty turkey meal.
Live music: Live entertainment will run from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. in the park for guests of The Famous Turkey Barbeque to enjoy. Entertainment will include:
- Gallery Ballet & James LaRocca, 11:00-11:30 a.m.
- Second Winds Community Band, 11:30-1:00 p.m.
- Chayag – South American Flute Music, 1:00-2:00 p.m.
- Nancy McCann singing variety and pop, 2:30-4:30 p.m.
- The Rainbirds, a blues and rock band, 5-7 p.m.
Carnival Rides & Games: For the young at heart Funtastic Shows returns with the Carnival rides and games in a new location this year, at the south end of town, at the corner of Booth Bend Rd. and Hwy 99W, in front of Rice Furniture and Hometown Dental and adjacent to Lowe’s Home Improvement. The carnival will be open at noon Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Other community sponsored events which will be held throughout the city in conjunction with Turkey Rama. For a complete schedule of festival activities click on “Events Schedule” on the menu bar above. |
