This weekend is full of big events in Lassen County
When it rains, it pours they say — and several big, big events arrive in Lassen County this weekend.
Main Cruise
The Main Cruise, sponsored by the Lassen County Chamber of Commerce and the city of Susanville, takes over a part of Main Street from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday night and then the event moves to its new digs at Memorial Park on Saturday.
Believe it or not, the Main Cruise celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, complete with T-shirts that include a reworking of the original artwork from a poster 25 years ago (a 1956 Ford Thunderbird convertible).
Of course, the Main Cruise features the traditional Show ‘n’ Shine when the owners of those magnificent machines from Detroit’s heavy metal glory days go on joyful display for the public. The owners can expect oohs and ahs and earn bragging rights from the public, as well as a chance to win a number of different prizes. Food and adult beverages will be available at the event.
The Main Cruise offers a new event this year — an International Soap Box Derby sanctioned race on Nevada Street between 8 and 5 p.m. The chamber hopes this can become an annual event tied to the Main Cruise. Racers from across the region are expected to compete in three divisions — stock, superstock and masters. The chamber hopes local businesses and organizations will purchase Soap Box Derby car kits and sponsor local racers. There’s also a free showing of “American Graffiti” at Sierra Theatre at midnight and a poker run at Diamond Mountain Casino beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday. For more information on the Main Cruise, call the chamber at 257-4323.
Bluegrass Festival
Guitars, fiddles, mandolins and banjos, oh my! The eighth annual Susanville Bluegrass Festival brings that high, lonesome sound to Susanville again this weekend featuring some of the best bluegrass music in the nation.
This year’s event features performances by One Button Suit, The Blue J’s, Blue Highway, Snap Jackson and The Knock on Wood Players, Jeff Sroggins and Colorado, Sage Creek, Grassland Road and Nu-Blu.
Consider this — Blue Highway has earned 26 collective International Bluegrass Music Association awards, six Bluegrass Music awards, one Dove award, and three Grammy nominations as a band, plus two Grammy awards among its current members. Blue Highway’s No. 1 album, “Original Traditional,” was nominated for a 2017 Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album and Blue Highway was voted the Favorite Bluegrass Artist of All Time by the readers of Bluegrass Today in April 2016. Wow, and wow again.
For more information, call the Lassen County Fair at 251-8900.
Dark Skies Festival
If you’re more into the cosmos than classic cars and bluegrass music, you won’t want to miss the public Friday night event at the Dark Skies Festival at Lassen County Supervisor Aaron Albaugh’s ranch in the North County. For more information, call Albaugh at 708-1761.
