SNOHOMISH — The decision to pull the car show from Kla Ha Ya Days’ events roster met disappointment from many angles. The car show community rebuked it. The public wondered.
Bill Webster, as the “face” of the Kla Ha Ya Days Festival, has still been fielding questions.
The logistics and abuse of volunteers in past years did it in this year, he explained at the June 17 City Council meeting.
Webster said he initiated the conversation to not hold the show this year. The city didn’t ask to discontinue it, nor did the First Street business community.
Volunteers need to man traffic barricades and more for nine hours. in the past, those volunteers also faced flack.
He is talking with the property owner of the Stocker Soccer Fields to hold a 2026 car show there.
Some have even offered to volunteer on that show, he said. “Offering to help is helpful, criticism not so much,” Webster said.
Concerns about the city’s introduction of a retainer fee for certain events also posed another pause for organizers, Webster said.
The retainer is not being charged for any events in 2025, city department director Shari Ireton said. The motorcycle show wasn’t asked either, she said.
Kla Ha Ya Days filed for a special events application in November for “only the parade and vendor fair—no car show was proposed,” Ireton said.
“There is a misconception that the new retainer fee is the reason there will be no car show during Kla Ha Ya Days,” Ireton said in an email.
The retainer is for events classified as high-risk. High risk is evaluated from many factors. An example could be an event with a lot of people on the street where a vehicle could drive in to hurt eventgoers, such as what happened at the Christmas Market in Berlin this December.
The Snohomish Easter Parade was considered “high risk,” for example, Ireton said in a call. Most First Street events would be.
“Our challenge is the times have changed,” Ireton said.
The $6,000 retainer would only be calculated into an event’s 2026 fees if the event had violation problems in 2025, Ireton said. The retainer is a refundable fee.
The potential violations could be if city workers need to step in to fill traffic control or clean up after an event, or other issues — things where the city had to send workers on overtime for things which the event said it had already handled. This includes costing the city overtime hours to pay for staff and contracted police.
So, for Kla Ha Ya Days, having volunteers at all their stations will matter. A violation would logically mean in 2026 they would need to pony up the retainer fee. For the event’s treasury, $6,000 is a large chunk of what the Kla Ha Ya Days event committee has in funds, Webster said.
Whether a retainer fee is in play for an event in 2026 would be decided after the 2025’s event concludes, Ireton said. So far, no events that have already happened have run afoul, she said.
The Historic Downtown Snohomish Association’s Snohomish Pride event, another “high-risk” event downtown which saw more than 10,000 attendees, buffered its volunteers by hiring more than 10 day laborers from a staffing agency.
One exception: Expressive events, such as protests, which possess certain First Amendment rights.
Kla Ha Ya Days’ annual free downtown events will be July 18-20. The balloon glow and concert will be July 12.
The annual Snohomish Classic Car & Hot Rod Display is still being planned for September 28. A 4x4 truck show at Craven Farm is also being planned for Aug. 3.
