Redmond's Centennial is coming up next year (the city was incorporated on July 6, 1910), and their 2010 Centennial Committee is holding a poster contest to select the official poster for the Celebration. I've reproduced the press release below; the only question is, what is the due date for submissions?

The 2010 Redmond Centennial Committee is excited to announce a poster contest for the official poster for the Centennial Celebration! This is a wonderful way to contribute to the Redmond Centennial through your artistic and graphic skills. We are looking for poster designs that represent the past 100 years of Redmond. This can focus on a specific image or time or a collage.

We ask that all posters include the following text/graphics:

1. Redmond Centennial 2010
2. Dates of events are as follows:
   1. Centennial Kickoff Weekend, May 28-31, 2010
   2. Centennial Week Celebration, July 2-6,2010
   3. Harvest Festival, September 17-19, 2010
3. Web address, phone number and email address:
   www.ci.redmond.or.us, (541) 504-2010, redmond2010@ci.redmond.or.us
4. Redmond Centennial HUB (will be emailed upon request).

Rules:

1. Only original artwork will be considered.
2. Copyrighted Images/Subjects: The winner’s work will become the property of the City of Redmond.
3. Please submit your poster as a .jpeg or .pdf. It may be emailed or sent on a cd. The winner will be asked to submit a high-resolution .jpeg.
4. Artists may submit multiple posters. When creating your poster, please remember that the winning poster will be reproduced and distributed and consider the cost of reproduction.
5. Please leave space at the bottom of your design for sponsorship logos.

Benefits:

1. Listing on the Centennial website as poster artist.
2. Invitations to Centennial events.
3. Press release announcing your winning entry.
4. If you have a business, your logo on the poster.

Please contact us at: (541) 504-2010, redmond2010@ci.redmond.or.us for a submission form.

Move over, Bend: Redmond has a summer's worth of free concerts to offer, too. Starting this week and lasting through September 9th, Music on the Green and Music in the Canyon are offering free music every Wednesday (along with food vendors, arts, and crafts).

Music on the Green:

Hosted at Sam Johnson Park, Music on the Green is a FREE, family friendly event featuring gourmet food vendors, arts, crafts, convenient parking and more. This year's series will begin Wednesday, June 24, 2009 from 6:00 p.m. -7:30 p.m. and run every other Wednesday till September 2nd, 2009.

Music in the Canyon:

Located at 850 SW Rimrock Way at the new American Legion Park in Redmond.

This concert series is presented as a complement to "Music on the Green" at Sam Johnson Park.

It takes place every other Wednesday on the non-Music on the Green days—filling in the gaps, as it were.

Definitely worth checking out if you're in Redmond.

And, I've updated the Free Summertime Activity Guide with these two items (in a special "Redmond" section no less).

Just over a year ago I posted about how Redmond was looking for a new slogan to re-invent its brand identity, "in four words or less." I thought it was slightly ridiculous, though they were awarding a $500 cash prize to whomever submitted the winning tagline.

Well, they've selected and revealed their new slogan:

"Who Knew!"

I'm not kidding. You can visit the Redmond Downtown Partnership right now and read their press release:

The new tagline epitomizes the surprise reaction people exhibit when they learn about Redmond Downtown, according to city officials and the Redmond Downtown Partnership (RDP). As part of Friday's Walk the Art Beat celebration, The RDP announced the new Who Knew! branding campaign and, for the first time, publicly revealed the new logo....

The Who Knew! branding campaign begins this year and is expected to last through at least the next two years. It will capitalize on Redmond Downtown as an up-and-coming top destination in Central Oregon. Kick-started by the new logo and tagline, the brand effort will augment the City, Chamber and other key local entities in attracting more tourists and business to Redmond. The plan includes more community events, opportunities for businesses to co-op group advertising, regional public relations, and marketing that highlights specific district businesses.

I'm not sure what to think, though my initials reactions aren't very positive. "Who Knew!" actually sounds like something snarky I might have come up with.

I didn't see this coming (I really didn't): Redmond's Project Blue Book Festival (see last's year's post) is back for their Second Annual edition. Here's the email I got tonight (I bolded the date):

Hey! Last years festival was great for a first time event! And surprising how many people do not know about Redmond & Central Oregon's rich history of UFO sightings! Here is a link to one of the documented sightings: http://www.nicap.org/oregon.htm

So, just to let you know the 2nd Annual Redmond's Project Blue Book UFO Parade will be June 28th, Downtown Redmond, OR...10:00AM on 7th & 8th Streets between Evergreen & Deschutes...Free event! Staging for the parade is on 8th street between Evergreen & Deschutes, and route is twice around the block!!!

If anyone is interested in being in the parade, contact me by June 25. Ribbons for Best of Categories including; Best Alien Look-Alike, Alien Group/Family; Alien Craft, Alien Being, and Historical Alien.
Tracy Thille 408-6554

Too strange to make up. The 28th is a Saturday, by the way.

This story appeared in Thursday's Bulletin and on the KTVZ newscast, but I can't find a thing about it online anywhere except behind the Bulletin's really stupid "e-edition" paywall: "Redmond turns to public for a brand identity." I'll type in some choice quotes:

In an effort to draw businesses and shoppers, the area's marketing agency has designed a communitywide contest to come up with a branding slogan that will give the downtown district an identity.

The Redmond Downtown Partnership is seeking ideas from the public... for up to four words that appropriately capture the essence of what downtown Redmond is and what it can become.

They are awarding a $500 cash prize to the person whose tagline they select. Only, the article doesn't specify where to send your contest entries; presumably, you would send them to the Downtown Partnership.

Can you come up with a 4-word-or-less slogan for Redmond? It's worth some cash to you if you can. For that matter, can you come up with one for Bend? Myself, I don't think I could do it—not without coming up with something sarcastic or snarky. I guess I just didn't think cities really needed a slogan... fortunately, the article proves me wrong:

"Every community needs a brand," [Tony] Dow said.

They do? Could someone enlighten me as to what some of the local communities' brands are?

It's the month for festivals: the Redmond Sunfest is this weekend, July 21st and 22nd. It opens at 4pm Friday, until 10, and 8am Saturday (also until 10). It's free, and there will be free live music, vendors, food, wine and beer, a children's area, and more.

Located in Downtown Redmond on 7th Street and Evergreen, in the Redmond Plaza adjacent to the Chamber building, this fun filled weekend will feature a variety of live music and stage performers, the "Rock Chuck Ramble"� fun run, a pancake breakfast, artists and crafters from around the Northwest as well as the SELCO Community Credit Union children's area and a Downtown Discovery Hunt where child participants are given a "treasure"� map to follow that takes them to local retail locations to collect "treasure"� (a token charm to make a bracelet.) The greatest aspect to Redmond Sunfest is that it offers something for everyone to do.

The event was created as a way to bring the community of Redmond together and raise funds for the non profit Redmond Arts Foundation which works towards sustaining art in public places throughout Redmond. The event still supports the Redmond Arts foundation and a portion of the events proceeds will be donated to the foundation.

Sounds like fun, and it's (mostly) free—if you enjoyed SummerFest last weekend, you'll enjoy this.

The Redmond Spokesman blog has an article (from their print edition, of course) about the Project Blue Book Festival coming up in Redmond this Saturday the 23rd—this the UFO festival I blogged about a few months back, I believe. I'm kind of surprised to see it happening.

Based on what information I can scare up online, the festival starts at 10am and runs all day in Downtown Redmond (til 8pm). Looks like there will be a kids costume contest at 11am and an adult costume contest at 6pm... so I guess dress up as an alien?

Also, from the article:

[Tracey] Thille said though she's hoping for a fun event, there's a serious aspect to the Blue Book festival as well. No one will be laughing at anyone who has a story to share. "We respect their experiences. We're going to have something called the Sightings Studio, where you can come in and record your experiences. And later in the evening we're going to have a gathering which will be just an open time in the plaza where you can sit and talk with fellow encounterees," she said. "Talk about your experiences and you see that you're not alone, there are a lot of people who've seen something. Some people won't say anything, they'll say 'It'll make me sound like I'm whacko,' but nearly everyone I've talked to knows someone who's seen something or they've seen something themselves."

The Spokesman blog mentions a guide to activities on page 16 of their print edition... which I don't have, sorry.

If anyone goes, feel free to send me a report. I'll host pictures, too. If nothing else, I'm sure there will be something about it on KTVZ.

Who else saw the blurb in Saturday's paper about Redmond's UFO convention being planned for June?

If the Redmond Historical Commission, The High Desert Society of the Arts and the Redmond Downtown Merchants have their druthers, airplanes won't be the only craft descending upon Redmond come June. The groups are pulling together to put on the first UFO convention in Central Oregon on June 23.

Details are sparse; they were holding a meeting this evening to explore all the angles. I'd be curious to hear how that went...

And that sure seems like an eclectic bunch to be holding a UFO convention. I wonder if they're envisioning something more commercial like "sci-fi/X-Files convention" rather than "weirdos wearing foil hats convention."

I just found out today that The Redmond Spokesman—Redmond's local weekly newspaper—has a blog, where they seem to be posting both bullet-point summaries of their news and longer articles. Good deal; they actually have a domain name but no site or other online presence out there—nice to see they've set up something.

And, their blog gives them a leg-up on the Bulletin, too—they have an RSS feed so their content can be syndicated and read in news aggregators. The Bulletin doesn't do that; I have a cobbled-together RSS feed for the Bulletin that slurps their free headlines, but that's just a workaround. Plus, most of the Bulletin's online content is behind a paywall anyway.

+1 Redmond Spokesman.

I keep hearing about Redmond's Music on the Green on the radio and forgetting to blog about it. It's Redmond's free summer concert series, held every other Wednesday in Sam Johnson Park. Free! There are four concerts left this season, starting on Wednesday.

• July 26 (this Wednesday): The Alliance
• August 9: Molly's Revenge
• August 23: Blackstrap
• September 6: Hokulea Dancers

The concerts run from 6 until 7:30 in the evening, and there are food vendors on-site. Has anyone been to one of these yet? Are they good?