Why is it called Colorama, anyway?

It's Mother's Day weekend in May, which means it's also Colorama time.

If you're new to the area, it's pronounced with the word "color" in it. Some people unfamiliar with our unusual spring festival name see it in a medical context, rendering a completely different connotation.

So why is the festival called Colorama; what's so colorful?

When local folks first decided to have a big spring hoot, they called it Western Days, a spirit that still lives on in Colorama with the popularity of the Colorama Rodeo.

But that changed in the middle of the last century when a huge bank of multi-colored lights was built below the spillway of Grand Coulee Dam. The lights lit up the whole dam, which changed colors during the light show, long before a "laser" existed.

That's when local business leaders saw their opportunity to market the area with something new, the colored light show on the dam. So Colorama was born.

So much for history, now delve into the present with our Colorama '22 special section inside this issue of The Star.