Summers Capturing Lilacs
Kaitlyn Hawker
Blog Editor-in-Chief
Some people go to the lake, some people pick up extra shifts, and some spend hours tanning in the sun. Me? I spend my summer Saturdays attending regional festivals and parades with the Spokane Lilac Festival.
This habit of mine began in the summer of 2023 when I was a part of the Spokane Lilac Festival Royal Court as a Princess. Just about every weekend of that summer, I was traveling to one lilac event or another, riding on the float, and waving to parade goers. That summer, I attended 12 parades, otherwise known as every single one the Spokane Lilac Festival was signed up for.
Parades are a kind of infectious joy that I hadn’t really understood prior to my involvement with the Festival, and when my tenure on the Royal Court was finally over, I found myself disappointed I might not have another opportunity to be a part of one.
Thankfully, the Official Festival Photographer, Monika Hawkinson approached me in the Spring of 2024 with an idea. Monika was planning to take on the one-year commitment of becoming the Spokane Lilac Festival President in 2026, which meant she would not have the ability to take as many photos of events as she usually did.
Of course, she was not going to have that. The photographer’s exact words were, “My year will not be the year without pictures!” So, she recruited me to be her protégé and learn how to use a DSLR camera so I could take over her duties for the 2026 Festival when she was busy giving speeches and sitting at the head table.
Monika lent me two camera bodies, two lenses, and her Adobe Lightroom access and let me go to town. Over the next two years, I spent countless hours volunteering at events, honing my craft, taking photos in an official capacity for the Festival, and editing those photos for mass distribution on social media.
In the summers, I attended parades both near and far, which the Festival designates as “Day parades” and “Overnight Parades.” Of course, the Festival can’t attend every parade every year, but the list below is all the festivals we’ve visited in the last three years, all of which I’ve taken pictures of.
Day Parades:
Spokane
- Friendly Sons of St. Patrick Parade: 2nd Saturday of March
- Hillyard Hijinx Parade: 1st Saturday of August
- Valleyfest Hearts of Gold Parade: 2nd Saturday of September
- Parade of Lights: 2nd Friday of December
Washington
- Rosalia Battle Days: 1st Weekend of June
- Reardan Mule Days Parade: 1st Saturday of June
- Medical Lake Founder’s Day Parade: 3rd Weekend in June
- Tekoa Slippery Gulch Parade: 3rd Saturday of June
- Cheney Rodeo: 2nd Weekend in July
- Davenport Pioneer Days: 3rd Weekend in July
- Deer Park Settler’s Day: 4th Saturday of July
Idaho
- Coeur d’Alene Fourth of July: 4th of July
- Post Falls Festival Parade: 2nd Weekend in July
- Priest River Timber Days Parade: 4th Weekend in July
Overnight Parades:
- Portland, Oregon: Portland Rose and Starlight Festival: 1st Weekend in June
- Marysville, WA: Marysville Strawberry Festival: 3rd Weekend in June
- Seattle, WA: Seattle Seafair Torchlight Parade: 3rd Weekend in July
- Penticton, BC, Canada: Penticton Peach Festival: 1st Weekend in August
Hillyard Hijinx is one I’ve gone to for four years now and it’s incredible to see how much I’ve grown both in my photography skills and personally through the Spokane Lilac Festival.
I know traveling to regional parades and festivals is not how most college students imagine their summer weekends. I am not most college students, and I struggle to imagine a summer where I don’t travel with Lilac. I am forever grateful for the opportunity to see communities come out in droves to support their local organizations and schools, and even more grateful to document it.