Cherry Fest moving to 4th Street; Art Center calls foul
File Photo - Ferris Wheel from the 2025 Cherry Festival on First Street. Cherry Festival
By Tom Peterson
The Dalles, Ore., Feb. 11, 2026 — The Cherry Festival, The Dalles’ largest annual event, will move to Fourth Street this April due to the First Street Streetscape Project, a shift that has drawn formal objections from The Dalles Art Center over concerns about lost revenue, access and potential property damage.
The Dalles Area Chamber Director Lisa Farquharson
The Dalles Area Chamber of Commerce Director Lisa Farquharson said the relocation became necessary last fall when it became clear that construction on First Street between Union and Laughlin streets would prevent the festival from returning to its traditional First Street location.
City Community Development Director Joshua Chandler told City Councilors in July 2025 his intent was to begin the First Street upgrade in Winter 2026.
“We thought we might get one more Cherry Festival on First Street,” Farquharson said. “By October, we realized that wasn’t going to happen.”
The Chamber evaluated multiple alternative sites, including Kramer Field, First Street Northwest of Lewis & Clark Festival Park, Sorosis Park and the Columbia Gorge Community College Campus, County Property next to The Dalles Riders Club among others. But she determined they lacked sufficient space, flat ground, power access or proximity to downtown businesses or were also closed for construction.
Click map to enlarge it: This Chamber Cherry Fest map shows the carnival and vendor locations in green and red for The Dalles Cherry Festival set for April 24-26. The car show will be held on Federal Street between Fourth an 2nd streets. The community fair will be on Court Street between 3rd and 2nd streets. Live music programming for this year’s Cherry Festival is still being finalized.
Ultimately, Fourth Street was selected, though Farquharson acknowledged the decision came after months of revisions and internal debate.
“We revised this map at least 20 times,” she said. “Power, water, spacing, safety — all of that had to work.”
Carnival revenue a key factor to location
A major factor in the decision was the festival’s carnival component, which Farquharson said generates revenue critical to sustaining the event.
She said the Chamber receives carnival revenue that covers roughly one-third of the total festival cost, which ranges between $50,000 and $60,000 annually
Without the carnival, she said, vendor participation declines and the festival becomes financially unviable.
“If I don’t have the carnival, the vendors don’t want to be here,” Farquharson said. “All those parts work together.”
The carnival is scheduled to begin setup Sunday, April 19, with the festival running April 24-26 and teardown concluding by Tuesday. April 28. That timeline results in up to 10 days of street closure.
Art Center raises formal objection
Art Center Executive Director Ellen Woods-Potter
In a letter to the City Council and Chamber of Commerce, The Dalles Art Center Executive Director Ellen Woods Potter formally objected to the carnival’s placement directly in front of the organization’s building.
Potter wrote that the Art Center’s Garden Party, scheduled for Thursday, April 23, is the organization’s second-largest annual fundraiser and generates nearly 90 percent of its April income.
Restricting access and eliminating close parking, she wrote, would create a “substantial financial loss” for the nonprofit.
The letter also raised concerns about elderly and disabled patron access, potential landscaping damage, vandalism and security issues.
“Placing the carnival in front of businesses that cannot benefit, while causing them significant harm, is fundamentally inequitable,” Potter wrote.
Communication breakdown
The dispute is further complicated by a November email to the Art Center in which Farquharson stated that a Fourth Street footprint was not workable and would no longer be considered.
“…it is clear that a Cherry Festival footprint on 4th Street is not workable for the surrounding businesses,” she wrote in the November 2025 email. “I want to reassure you that we are no longer considering 4th Street as a festival location."
During a recent interview, she confirmed the email in mid-November and at that time she was prepared to cancel the festival entirely due to logistical concerns.
By mid-December, however, after additional discussions with city officials, utilities and downtown businesses, Fourth Street was reconsidered.
Farquharson also acknowledged that the Art Center was inadvertently left off a subsequent email distribution about the reconsideration, which she described as an administrative error.
“I did apologize for leaving her (Woods-Potter) off the email,” Farquharson said, adding that the omission was unintentional.
Mitigation efforts ongoing
Farquharson said the Chamber has offered several mitigation measures, including temporary fencing, dedicated parking, ADA access accommodations and additional marketing support for the Art Center.
She said discussions are ongoing and that the Chamber continues to seek ways to minimize impacts to the Art Center and other affected businesses.
However, Farquharson agreed she and Woods-Potter have not met since November.
“We’re still trying to figure out how to make this work with the least impact possible,” she said.
Balancing impact and economic need
Farquharson said she heard demand for the festival directly from several downtown businesses that rely on Cherry Festival revenue to bridge the period between the holiday season and summer tourism.
She estimated that approximately 35 percent of festival attendees come from outside The Dalles and that some hospitality businesses generate $10,000 to $15,000 in revenue during the weekend
“If we don’t have this event, I can’t imagine the impact,” she said.
For the Art Center, the concern remains concentrated and immediate.
Potter’s letter asks who would be held accountable for any financial losses resulting from the closure?
As planning continues, the Fourth Street relocation reflects the difficult tradeoffs facing The Dalles during a season of downtown construction.
For some businesses, Cherry Festival represents a critical economic bridge between winter and summer tourism.
For the nonprofit The Dalles Art Center, the same event represents risk to one of its most important fundraising months.
Whether the move ultimately strengthens downtown or deepens division likely depends more on whether parties can talk, mitigate and rebuild trust before the carnival lights turn on in April.
