8 Really Distinctive Local Events That Make Yakima Truly Yakima

Each town or city has their own vibe, and Yakima has quite the eclectic mix. Soon after I moved here from Tennessee in 2002, I was shell-shocked to see the amount of crab feeds and spaghetti feeds happening in Yakima. That’s part of the Yakima culture–we love to eat! We love to do some other weird stuff, too, as you'll see below.

There are things I’ve noticed we do that other towns probably don’t. People who relocate to Yakima need to get used to our peculiar habits, including a knack for recognizing the most popular types of events you’ll come across throughout the year at any given time (and sometimes for any given reason).

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Yakima Culture Shock: Assimilate Accordingly

During a recent rewatch of Northern Exposure, I loved how the town of Cicely has its own vibe, its own culture. Everybody has the same key to lock/unlock their houses, there's only one general store in town, and it's also the same place you go to pick up your mail and rent out library books. There's only one doctor in town--and he's pretty hot.

Newbies moving to Yakima Valley will find that we have our own quaint vibe, too.

We go to fundraisers a lot.

We celebrate and honor our local tribal nations (the Confederated Tribes of the Yakama Nation) and all our other cultural communities that bring color and life to our world.

We call streets by their FIRST names (ex: Tieton, Summitview, 1st Street (whether it’s North or South), Walnut, etc.

We have way too many people selling oysters, oranges, holiday baskets, cell phones, and flames of burning meat on the side of the road.

Golfers gonna golf, i.e. it's okay with the boss to carve out a chunk of the workday to go play golf for a tournament as long as you come back to the office and finish your work for the day (or is that just where I work?).

We aren't used to the rain.

We will stand in line for a really long time to either eat good food from a taco truck at a convenience store parking lot.

We'll also wait in super long lines at all hours of the day to get a coffee from a locally owned coffee stand. (Also, there's a locally owned coffee stand on practically every other block; everybody's got their favorites.)

We put our kids in nearly every sport, dance, and music competition imaginable and will make sure they get to every single practice.

We will buy tamales from your primo, abuelita, and tia at the drop of a hat.

If you’re living in Yakima, here are the most popular beloved local events that you better get used to! What would you add to the list?

It’s getting pretty wild and sometimes it looks like our city of Yakima has turned into a pop-up flea market! I’m not a fan of that, but hey, it adds some new flavor to the city! Welcome aboard and join our Yakima circus freak show, I guess?

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