Spokane, WAโSimon Wangai may have been the fastest runner on the course, but it was the Red Hot Mamas who captured the crowd's fancy as best entertainers at last Sunday's Lilac Bloomsday Run. The performing troupe collected 144 votes out of 338 votes cast in the first annual Best Bloomsday Entertainers competition. Country Music band Dusty Klink finished in second with 34 votes, with Classic Rockers PF Flyer in third.
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"Entrants really seemed to enjoy the variety of entertainment on the course," said Bloomsday Board Member Dori Robertson, who organized the competition. "There's still room out there for more performers, so we expect the entertainment aspect of Bloomsday to grow in the future."
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Fifteen different groups or individual performers participated as official Bloomsday entertainers along the 7-1/2 mile course. Besides the Red Hot Mamas, Dusty Klink, and PF Flyer, they included Rhythm Envy (plastic bucket drum corps), Yesterday's Cake (top 40 and classic rock), Mere Shadows (Christian alternative), Foreign DNA (rock), Fast Recovery (original and classic rock), Kuhai Halau (hula dancers), Sammy Thomas (15-year-old accordionist), Sisters of Selket (belly dancers), Oneeighty's Step One (youth dance team/modern hip hop), Buck Daddie (solo rockin' acoustic piano and guitar), Rainshadow (old time rock and roll), and Wayne and Marian's Good Old Stuff (oldies, accordion & bass).
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The top five bands in this year's Best Bloomsday Entertainers contest will receive gift certificates provided by the Downtown Spokane Partnership/Business Improvement District and downtown businesses, including Mootsy's N.9 Pizza, Slick Rock Burrito, Brews Brothers Coffee, and Thomas Hammer Coffee.
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