PULLMAN, Wash. Get ready for food, games and fun. The 23rd Annual National Lentil Festival will be held Friday-Saturday, Aug. 19-20 in Pullman. This event was created in 1989 to celebrate the community and the lentil. WSU is a major sponsor of this event, donating every year to help provide tables, chairs, tents and other miscellaneous supplies needed to make this event successful.
The event will kick off at 5 p.m. in downtown Pullman with a street fair, which will include live music, shopping, youth activities and 350 gallons lentil chili. The chili is free to all festival attendees thanks in part to sponsorship by WSU.
The festival will continue Saturday morning at 8 a.m. with a 100k Tour de Lentil and a lentil pancake breakfast. At 11 a.m., the parade will begin on Grand Avenue and the Lentil Marketplace will open in Reaney Park.
The festival will then wrap up with the Legendary Lentil Cook-off, a cooking competition in which cooks send in their favorite lentil recipe and are judged based on the dish’s originality, ease of preparation, accuracy of directions and taste. The winner will receive $1,000.
The festival will run 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. More information on the event can be found at The National Lentil Festival website.