ISLAND CITY — A cherished tradition is set to return in Island City.

Island City’s annual Hog Wild Days celebration is coming back after being shut down in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has subsided dramatically in Northeastern Oregon.

This year’s Hog Wild Days celebration will run from Friday, June 3, to Sunday, June 5.

“We are bringing it back to life this year,” said John Tolan, a member of the Island City Lions Club, which will again be putting on Hog Wild Days.

Dale De Long, who served as mayor of Island City for 24 years through 2016, was delighted to hear the news.

“It means a lot. It is a tradition,” De Long said. “When something that has been successful returns, it has a big impact. It is a big positive.”

This year’s event will start around 6 p.m. June 3 with a barbecue at Island City’s Fred Beeman Park, on McAlister Road adjacent to Island City Elementary School. In the past the barbecue was conducted in the school’s gym but the gym will not be available this year, Tolan said.

Activities on June 4 will kick off with a breakfast at the La Grande Rural Fire Department’s hall from 6-11 a.m. The La Grande Rural Fire Department traditionally serves a community breakfast on the Saturday morning of Hog Wild Days. The event is a fundraiser for the La Grande Rural Fire Department. Money raised at the breakfast is used for community projects such as the department’s Shop With a Firefighter program for children and Thanksgiving and Christmas food baskets for families.

Activities will continue Saturday morning with the annual Hog Wild Days Parade at 11 a.m. Tolan said the parade will again be an excellent opportunity for new businesses and other organizations to advertise.

“It will be a great way to promote summer activities,” Tolan said.

The parade has been a part of Hog Wild Days for possibly all of its history, said La Grande Middle School Librarian Keri Myer, who grew up in Island City and remembers its early days more than three decades ago. She saw some unusual sights in the parade during those early years.

“One year my brother walked a chicken in the parade with a leash,” Myer said.

The street fair lined with vendors will again be a big part of Hog Wild Days. Tolan has sent invitations to 80 vendors asking them to participate. Hog Wild Days had between 35 and 40 vendors at the 2019 Hog Wild Days, the last one conducted before the pandemic hit. Vendors in the past have sold arts and crafts items, food, clothing and much more.

The Island City Lions Club’s popular piggy train, long a Hog Wild Days fixture, will be rolling again this year during the street fair on June 4 and June 5. The train is a collection of pig-shaped cars for children made from plastic barrels that are pulled by a riding mower whose blades have been removed.

The piggy train is so popular that it provides rides at other events, including the Union County Fair, Tolan said.

All of the money the Island City Lions Club raises at Hog Wild Days is spent on its community service projects, which include a scholarship program for students who attended Island City Elementary School.

De Long said the return of Hog Wild Days is a victory of sorts over COVID-19.

“It is good to know that the pandemic did not destroy something that has been so important to the community,” De Long said.

Karen Howton, Island City’s city recorder, said the absence of Hog Wild Days the past two years left a void.

“This is an event that has definitely been missed in our community,” she said. “It kicks off the summer.”