Walla Walla Farmers Market

The Walla Walla Farmers Market will begin their Saturday and Sunday market, May 4th and 5th, 9am-1pm. The market is located on the corner of 4th and Main Street. A wide variety of venders will be showcasing their wares at the 2012 market. Consumers can choose from farmers produce, soaps, photography, jewelry, honey, plants and flowers, arts and crafts, great tasting food options, plus much more. Live music is performed each day at the market. This Friday the Rogues will be on the stage and Saturday will feature music by Rich Young.

WW Valley Bands Presents Swingin' Groovy Jazz Time

The Main Street Jazz Band and Mill Creek Jazz Ensemble is performing their Swingin'Groovy Jazz Time performance tonight, April 26th, 7:30pm at the Walla Walla Community College Performing Arts Auditorium. The Main Street Jazz Band will be performing Take Five, Can't Get No Satisfaction, Double or Nothing, Goodbye My Heart, Go Tell It On the Mountain, and Dance Big'un Dance. The Mill Creek Jazz Ensemble will be performing Playing the FieldSamba, Ti KayeWork in Progress, LaQuema Del DiabloI, Get a Kick Out of You, Willow Weep for Me, Prime Time, and  Two Original Charts by Glen Mitchell.  

The Walla Walla Valley Band program is a hybrid Community Band - Community College organization, with a growing student population. These students have the opportunity to learn while playing alongside amateur and semi-professional adult musicians with decades of performance experience. The bands consist of a Concert Band, two Jazz Bands and several Chamber Ensembles including a Sax Quartet. The 80+ members represent a cross section of the Walla Walla Valley.

Walla Walla Symphony Spring Celebration

The Walla Walla Symphony will be performing their Spring Celebration Concert on Tuesday, April 24th, 7:30pm at Cordiner Hall, on the Whitman College Campus. Highlights of the concert include Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30, Stephen Beus, piano,  and Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 4 in F Minor.
Stephen Beus holds degrees from Whitman College, The Juilliard School, and Stony Brook University. He has won many awards including first prize in the 2006 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, first place in the Vendome Prize International Competition (Lisbon) and he was awarded the Max I. Allen Fellowship of the American Pianists Association (Indianapolis).
Tickets for the concert start at $7. each. Tickets can be purchased for a pre-concert dinner at the Green Spoon and includes a three course meal. Tickets for that event are $40. Castillo de Feliciano will be the featured wine sponsor at the symphony. To purchase tickets see the symphony web site at http://www.wwsymphony.com/.

Pet Communication Class

Learn to communicate with your pet at the Pet Communication three day class- Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, April 23, 25, 26 at 6:45-8:15 p.m. Animal communication is learning how your pet tries to communicate with you and how you can communicate with them on a different level. It is watching body language, really listening to the different sounds and pitches your pet makes, as well as, telepathy and pheromones, and  knowing how all animals, even humans, communicate with all these tools and senses. Learn what science is proving about animal communication and how we can all do it with some practice and awareness.
Instructing this course is Shirley Scott, a well known animal communicator, spiritual teacher, clairvoyant, and the dog trainer for the “Dogs in Prison” program at the Washington State Penitentiary. These classes are held at Carnegie, 109 S. Palouse St., Walla Walla. The fee for the class is $25. Reservations to attend the class are required.  Pet owners are asked to not bring their pets to the class. For questions or to reserve a spot in the class, call Parks and Recreation at 527-4527 or send an email to recreation@ci.walla-walla.wa.us.

Celebrate National Record Store Day at Hot Poop in Walla Walla

Washington State's oldest independent record store, Hot Poop, is celebrating National Record Store Day Saturday, April 21st, 10am-6pm. The fifth annual event will be celebrated with a day of  free musical performances, food and festivities. The back parking lot of the Hot Poop Store at 210 E Main Street in Walla Walla will be transformed into a music lovers paradise. Some of the musical performances include Livevil, Soul Status, Plateau, Burger Machine, Acid Reflex, Lentil Brothers, Franky Jo, Jacob’s Weekend, Chastity Belt and Joe Keown. Pepsi products and chips will be served free at the event. Backstage Bistro will sell its barbecue pulled pork sandwiches.

National Record Store Day is one day that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music. To qualify a store must be a retailer whose main primary business focuses on a physical store location, whose product line consists of at least 50% music retail, whose company is not publicly traded and whose ownership is at least 70% located in the state of operation.

Milton-Freewater Garden Club Plant Sale

The Milton-Freewater Garden Club is having it's annual plant sale 9am to 4pm, April 21st. The sale will be held at the Community Building, 109 NE 5^th, in Milton-Freewater. The club will be selling house plants, bedding plants, perennials & more. Those who attend will have the opportunity to enter a drawing to win $10 in flowers and a one-year garden club membership. For more information call 541-938-3121.

Tour of Walla Walla

The Tour of Walla Walla is coming to town April 20th through 22nd. This is one of the largest cycling races of the region and it happens right in the middle of  downtown Walla Walla. Below is a list of times for each of the races.

The Waitsburg Road races starts at around 3:45pm on Friday, April 20th  on 10th Street at Coppei Ave (Hwy 12) in Waitsburg. The races are 42 to 64 miles long. Cyclists will be riding up Middle Waitsburg Road to Ferris Road, then turn on to Lower Waitsburg Road then loops back to the Waitsburgs Main Street. 

The Downtown Walla Walla races starts at 7:30amon Saturday, April 21st. The race route weaves around 1st and Main Street to Palouse Street, around Poplar, Alder, and Colville Street.

The Kellogg Hollow Road Races start at 8am on Sunday, April 22nd. The races are 37 to 94 mile contests. Staging will be at 10th & Coppei in Waitsburg.

Over $12,500. in prizes and cash will be awarded to the winners of the event. For those who would like to volunteer to help at the event, call Allegro Cyclery at 509-525-4949.

Harper Joy Theatre Presents: The Birthday Party

Harper Joy Theatre presents a spine chilling comic, The Birthday Party. The story line for this production begins with Stanley Webber, who lives in a boarding-house and is visited by two strangers. An innocent-seeming birthday party for Stanley turns into a nightmare.This modern classic was first performed in 1958. It is being performed April 11-15th in the Harper Joy Studio Theatre. Show times are 8pm Thursday through Saturday and 2pm on Sunday. Tickets are $12. for adults, $8. for students and seniors, and is free for Whitman College students. Tickets can be reserved by calling (509) 527-5180.

Helpline Soupport Fundraiser

Be the first person to view the Helpline fundraiser SoupPort bowls painted at the Parks & Recreation Pottery Painting Studio! There are over 200 bowls to view, each very unique. The bowls will be on display April 12th – April 16th at the Pottery Painting Studio, 109 S. Palouse in Walla Walla. Bowls can be purchased by purchasing a ticket to the Helpline SoupPort fundraiser at Earthlight Books or the Helpline office. The SoupPort event is April 18th at Blanchette Hall at St. Patricks Church. Tickets are $25. each and with that includes a savory soup lunch with bread made from  local bakeries. Each person who attends will also be taking home one of the 200 bowls that have been painted at the Pottery Paining Studio.

Walla Walla Sweet Onion Jam Music Festival

The Walla Walla Sweet Onion Jam Music Festival is Sunday, April 15th. The music festival is a talent show of musicians, age elementary-college and a fundraiser for Walla Walla Public School Music Programs. All styles of music will be performed. The audience may vote on their favorite performances by donating $1. for each vote. The festival will take place in the grass amphitheater on the back lawn of the YMCA. Each group will have 5 minutes to play, competing to raise the most money for the Walla Walla School District Music Programs. Winners of the competition will have the opportunity to play at Sapolil Cellars or for a local radio station. The audience will receive 1 raffle ticket for each vote they turn in. The winner of the raffle will receive one free year of membership at the YMCA. Dabbles in Bloom, an indie-rock band from Whitman and The Lentil Brothers from WWCC will also be performing at the festival. The Sweet Onion Jam Music Festival will take place 2-5pm. The community partners in organizing SOJ are the YMCA, the Lift from Lincoln High School, AmeriCorps and 123 Printing.

Sweet Home Walla Walla Historic Tour

The Kirkman House Museum is now selling tickets for the 4th Annual Sweet Home Walla Walla Historic Tour. The tour takes place on Sunday, April 29th from 11am to 4pm. The tour features six of Walla Walla's historic homes that showcase a variety of approaches to preservation, restoration and adaptive reuse. Visitors will have the opportunity to hear about the architecture and history of each home. This year as an added bonus a spectacular 7th home is being added to the list for the first 50 people who purchase their tickets. Advance tickets are $25. or $20. for museum members and $30. the day of the event. Tickets to see all 7 homes cost an additional $50. To purchase tickets contact the Kirkman House Museum at 509-529-4373 or stop by the Museum at 214 N Colville St. in Walla Walla.

Local Easter Egg Hunts

The Walla Walla Exchange Club is holding its 53th Annual Children’s Easter Egg Hunt on April 7, 2012 at 9 a.m. at Pioneer Park. This year’s Easter Egg hunt features 21 prizes, including three bicycles, which will be awarded in categories, 1-3 yrs old, 4-6 yrs, 7-10 yrs and special-needs. The event is free and open to the public.

The Milton-Freewater Kiwanis/Rotary Easter Egg Hunt is scheduled for 9am, April 7, 2012. After the hunt follow the Easter Bunny to Nature Garden Florist & Gifts from 10am to noon. Candy will be handed out and their will be opportunities to take a picture with the Easter Bunny!