Since 1948, Western Weekend has marked the unofficial start of summer in West Marin. The event commemorates the area’s agricultural heritage with a series of time-honored traditions: the West Marin 4-H Fair, a barn dance, the Farm Bureau Chicken Barbecue, and the Rotary Club’s Chili Cook-off. The celebration culminates in a Sunday parade featuring a procession of floats, dance teams, bagpipes, a mounted posse and vehicles that make their way down main street in Point Reyes Station.
This year’s edition will take place this Saturday, June 1 and Sunday, June 2.
“It’s like the Fourth of July, but without fireworks,” said Cindy Goldfield, who has been attending Western Weekend since childhood with her mother, Joyce Goldfield.
This year, Joyce, who is 87, is being recognized as the parade’s grand marshal for her significant contributions to the community. She is perhaps best known as the cofounder of Halleck Creek Riding Club, which she created with her friend Duane Irving to provide therapeutic horseback riding for children and adults with disabilities. In the late 1970s, some of the club’s mounted members began participating in Western Weekend’s Sunday parade; the nonprofit has been involved ever since.
Despite suffering a stroke last fall, Joyce still intends to participate in the parade.
“She’s indomitable,” Cindy said of her mother. “Not only is she here, but now she gets to be the queen.”
The Goldfields’ connection to Western Weekend extends back more than half a century. Joyce says she has attended ever since moving to Inverness Park from Martha’s Vineyard in the 1960s. When her daughter was old enough, she began helping with the parade.
Cindy remembers those years fondly. If, on occasion, the Halleck Creek Riding Club brought a horse that startled in crowds and could not be safely ridden by a disabled client, Joyce would have her daughter ride it anyway to help condition the nervous horse to being around people.
Cindy also recalled a time when she rode a gentle bull named Zing in the parade before he went on to star in the crowd-favorite Cow Flop Drop.
“The weekend is a chance for all of the locals to get together,” Joyce said. “It’s our day.”
Western Weekend will again have a junior grand marshal this year, but instead of holding a youth raffle contest as in the past, the nominee was chosen by members of the West Marin Lions Club. Annika Parmar, a graduating senior at Tomales High School, received the honor for her work as a youth advocate. In addition to serving as a community relations officer and commissioner for the Marin County Youth Commission, she created a resource guide called Find Your Way, which promotes wellbeing for youth in Marin.
Like Joyce, Annika has attended Western Weekend for most of her life, and the importance of the event is not lost on her.
“It’s super pivotal for our local businesses and our community to thrive, to be recognized,” she said. “It puts us on the map.”
More than 1,000 people are expected to fill the streets for the Sunday parade. Managing crowds of that size can prove to be a logistical hurdle, but Rhonda Kutter, an organizer of the weekend, said that added support from sponsors like the Rotary Club has helped with the planning. In turn, Western Weekend continues to grow more organized each year.
“It can be challenging to bring everyone together, but it’s really wonderful to have the community all together in one place,” she said. “And there aren’t many opportunities to do that.”
See the calendar for Western Weekend events or visit www.westernweekend.org for a complete schedule.