saʔtítkʷ (River) Artist Celebration this Friday-Saturday in Coulee Dam

Live music, good food, and local and Indigenous artists will take center stage at Coulee Dam's saʔtítkʷ (River) Artist Celebration this weekend, at what organizers hope will become an annual event on the reservation side of Coulee Dam.

And that's not even mentioning trick-or-treating and a costume contest with cash prizes happening Friday.

Hosted by the Chamber of Commerce and the Northwest Native Development Fund (NNDF), the celebration is centered on Mead Way, where most of the surrounding businesses are offering food and drink specials: Spillway Bar & Grill at 12 Tribes Casino, Rio Grande Restaurant, Harvest Foods, as well as traveling vendors with booths or trucks.

The Colville Tribal Museum is reopening out of its regular season for tours and trick-or-treating. Additionally, Village Cinema will let folks check out the space before their renovations begin. Art and crafts will be available at vendor booths, where only handmade or individually upcycled items are for sale.

But for Riki Wippel, of NNDF, one of the main event organizers, it comes down to the sounds you'll hear.

"I'm most excited for the live music," Wippel said. "I am so excited for Isaac Tonasket to be here. He's a big artist. He moves a room - and he's growing."

Tonasket's performance has packed the Pavilion at Northern Quest in Airway Heights, Wippel said. The singer-songwriter and rapper from the Spokane Reservation will take the stage Saturday at 4 p.m., following an extended set from The Red Books, an indie reggae rock and neo-soul group based in Coeur d'Alene.

Friday's performers include Jordan Fiction at 3 p.m. (heavy electronic – the artist describes it as "music for vampires"), Longhorn Station at 5 p.m. (country), and Jerry Lee Raines at 7:30 (Midwest funk).

The festival wouldn't be happening without a $15,000 grant from State of Washington Tourism, which the chamber applied for and received. The purpose of the grant is to accelerate arts and culture in rural and Indigenous communities.

"Nancy has been pretty amazing, I think, at wanting the community to be like an actual community," Wippel said of the chamber's Nancy Zimmerman-Boord, who secured the grant funding and sought partnerships to pull it off. "I love that she understands that she's not part of the [Indigenous] community, but she can partner with people who are. We want to partner with as many people as we can."