Apple pies, dragon boats, live music, lots more planned for Jamboree

What with parades and dragon boats and apple pies and live music and quilts and sloppy joes and fireworks and apple pies, it's going to be a busy weekend at the Apple Pie Jamboree, the annual town celebration in Pateros, this Friday through Sunday, July 18 through 20.

The annual Apple Pie Jamboree golf tournament will start at 8 a.m. Friday at Alta Lake Golf Course; it's an 18-hole tournament. Arts and crafts vendors will be setting up for business on Friday afternoon, and the jamboree's signature apple pies will be on sale from 5 to 7 p.m. There's something new on the menu in the pie booth-customers can choose ice cream with apple topping.

Saturday's events start early, really early in fact. Bass fishermen and fisherwomen can hit the water at 5 a.m. for the annual Ray Stanley Memorial Bass Tournament. All boats must be back to the dock by 3 p.m., when the winners are announced. Registration for the annual Jamboree Jog begins at 6:30 a.m., with the race at 7:30 a.m. Runners have their choice of a one mile or five kilometer course.

The Pateros Church of Christ will serve a pancake breakfast Saturday and Sunday mornings from 7 to 10 a.m.

Arts and crafts vendors open their booths at 8 a.m., and the information/souvenir booth also opens then. That's also when the annual three on three basketball tournament begins. Courts are set up in the city-owned parking lot across the street from Pateros Memorial Park; along with the basketball games, there will be a slam dunk, three-point, free throw and NBA two-ball shooting contests.

The annual Apple Pie Jamboree quilt show will be on display at the Pateros United Methodist Church from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Columbia River Quilting Guild sponsors the show, and they also sponsor a fundraising raffle for a quilt made by guild participants. The proceeds are donated to a worthy project in Brewster, Bridgeport or Pateros; for 2008 it's the St. James Episcopal Church Food Bank in Brewster. Tickets are $1 each and will be available during the quilt show.

The annual Apple Pie Jamboree parade steps off down Riverside Drive at 10:30 a.m. A brand-new event, dragon boat races, are scheduled to start at 11 a.m., but may start earlier depending on the number of teams participating.

The world-famous apple pies go on sale at 11 a.m.; so do the world-famous sloppy joes. There will be musical acts in the park beginning at 11:30 a.m. Games for children are scheduled for 1 p.m., and the pie eating contest at 2 p.m. The Kentucky Fried Chicken dinner is served from 5 to 7 p.m.

An afternoon and evening of music is scheduled for 3 p.m. to midnight in the parking lot in front of Sweet River Bakery and The Homestead. The Arkansas Travelers will perform at 3 p.m., Don Emerson and his group at 6 p.m. and Terry Lee Hardesty and the Eagle River Band at 9 p.m. The annual fireworks show will start at about 10 p.m.

The Pateros Church of Christ congregation will be serving breakfast in the park Sunday morning, and that's followed by an ecumenical church service at about 11 a.m.