Graton Day returns this Saturday after an 8-year hiatus
The celebration will happen on the new Graton Town Square site on Oct. 12
Graton has a lot to celebrate these days. Volunteers in town have been developing a new town square in the once empty lot next to the Underwood Bar and Bistro, and that lot will be the site of the first Graton Day Festival held in eight years. There will be live music, a pie baking contest, kids’ activities, food and local craft vendors, and interesting activities involving a “Museum of the Future.”
Last fall, the Board of Supervisors gave the Graton Community Services District (GCSD) a $283,600 grant to help with the purchase of the empty lot, which sold for $860,000. Matt Jorgensen, who is spearheading the project for the GCSD, learned yesterday that Graton Town Square came in first in a competitive Ag + Open Space grant competition for a $750,000 grant. It’s not a sure thing yet—it still needs to be approved by the Board of Supervisors—but if that grant came through, the GCSD could pay off the loan on the property and have a little left over for further development.
Jorgensen said there is also a fundraising campaign going on to help with the development of the square, and the proceeds from many of the events and vendors at Graton Day will go to support that campaign.
What’s Happening at Graton Day?
“It’s a big revival of a beloved tradition for Graton,” Jorgensen said. “There’s a real revival with younger people moving into town with fresh energy and a lot of energy galvanized around the town square,” he said. “So I think that now we have a place to do it, there’s volunteers and energy and capacity to bring it back. It’s our first celebration of community in the town square, and it’s a nice way to immediately recognize how valuable the space is for Graton and our surrounding community.”
The band, Graton Grass, will kick things off at 2 pm, and award-winning pies will be announced at 2:30 pm. There’s going to be a kid’s parade, led by the Hubbub Club at 3 pm. (Arrive early and go to the Kid’s Section to make decorations for the parade.)
After that, there’ll be some brief remarks from the stage by Jorgensen, Supervisor Lynda Hopkins and others about what’s happening with the development of the town square, as well as a land acknowledgement and a blessing from the local Zen Center. Organizers are hoping to have the candidates for the GCSD Board there to say a few words as well.
The musical headliner—Josh Brough and the Contraband (an offshoot of Poor Man’s Whiskey)—starts at 4 pm. Wear shoes you can dance in.
Organizers suggest that you come hungry because they’ll have Mexican, Greek, and Japanese food, as well as burgers and brats for sale. Proceeds from the sale of desserts and drinks will go to benefit the Town Square.
“A big intention of this is just seeding the longer-term community revitalization,” Jorgensen said. “So we’ll be inviting people in to the process. We’ve already had a couple hundred people engage with our co-design process and our surveys and as volunteers, but we’re going to have a bunch of things set up to kind of invite people deeper into the process.”
Jorgensen is especially excited about the “Museum of the Future.”
“We’ve set up a space that we’re calling the Museum of the Future, and that is a history of Graton and looking seven generations past and seven generations forward in the history of Graton and the Green Valley,” he said. “A number of local archivists have brought in old photos, and we’re kind of developing a community time capsule and then inviting people to share their visions for the future of the village and of the broader Green Valley community.”
“There’s going to be kind of this engagement and visioning element to the whole thing,” Jorgensen said. “And people are also invited to roll their sleeves up and literally seed the future by spreading wildflower seeds on the site and planting native plants that have been donated by the Hallberg Butterfly Garden. It’s gonna be so sweet.”
Come to the Graton Day celebration on the new Graton Town Square site in downtown Graton on Saturday, Oct. 12, from 2 to 6 pm.