Submitted by Experience Olympia & Beyond
Experience Olympia and Beyond (EOB), Thurston County’s visitor and convention bureau, is excited to announce that Carol Riley, Executive Director – Olympia Harbor Days Maritime Festival and Tugboat Races and Owner of The Event Company, LLC was awarded title of the 2023 Best Event Organizer in the State of Washington by the Washington Festivals and Events Organization, (WFEA.org), for her work on the now 50 year old Olympia Harbor Days Maritime Festival and Tugboat Races, (OHD), at the organization’s annual conference held in Issaquah. This follows two recent awards for the Best Festival of the South Sound in 2022 and the EOB’s Patrick Knutson Tourism Legend Award for 2023. She has also received numerous awards for marketing, publicity and inclusion over the years including the WFEA’s award for the Best Tabloid of 2023. OHD is a non-profit event presented free to the community by the South Sound Maritime Heritage Association.
This year Carol introduced to the community the excitement of a spectacular maritime drone show over the water as part of the OHD 50th celebration. She also produced an outdoor 48-panel exhibit of the history of the event and its logo which can currently be viewed in the windows of the historic City Hall and Fire Station in downtown Olympia. Carol was hired in 2015 by the Olympia Kiwanis Club, who then hosted the event, to (re)organize, reinvent, and produce OHD 2016, a 3-day Labor Day weekend event that now attracts over 60K annually to the waterfront of Olympia and over the years brought the event to a new level.
The well known, and well loved, iconic Olympia festival covers seven blocks along the boardwalk from historic Percival Landing the Port of Olympia Plaza, has three docks hosting a combination of 30 to 40 vintage tugboats, workboats, historic ships, schooners and small water craft, multiple maritime and art/sculpture demonstrations, over 200 arts and crafts, commercial and non-profit booth spaces, three stages offering over 25 bands and music acts, two seafood and international food G’Alleys, and of course host the World’s Largest Vintage Tugboat Races annually.
Carol has expanded the event to be inclusive of our local Coast Salish heritage and community including the Squaxin Island Tribe known as the “People of the Water,” showcasing their culture and ancestral maritime history with performances by the various tribal members and traditional Cedar stick open pit smoked salmon offered by the Chehalis Tribe’s Lucky Eagle Casino. The Nisqually Tribe also supports the event.
Carol is no stranger to organizing events. She was owner of Reunions Unlimited, a professional reunion planning company, and organized over 750 events in 20 years – 1995 – 2015 and was president of the National Association of Reunion Managers. She started her working career in the fashion industry in NYC as a fashion buyer for Macy’s and merchandiser in the women’s apparel industry in the late 70’s and 80’s. She then worked with professional art groups in PA as an arts grant writer, and later developed the Olympia Hands On Children’s Museum gift shop. Carol, who is on the Board of Directors of WFEA, currently lives in Olympia with her husband and is a strong community volunteer including the costume chair for Samba Olywa, assists with the Procession of the Species and Luminary Procession, and rows with the Olympia Area Rowing masters crew team. She and her husband have three adult children, three grandchildren and multiple foster grands.
According to EOB CEO Annette Pitts, “Carol has set the bar tremendously high for event planners in Thurston County while at the same time, through her sweeping scope of work over the years, provided a blueprint for best practices new planners can follow. Carol has been wildly successful while at the helm of Olympia Harbor Days and has truly delivered incredible impact to Thurston County, and we can’t think of anyone who would be more deserving of this award.”
For more information about OHD please email info@HarborDays.com or visit the Olympia Harbor Days website.
