Cyclists hit the road during the annual Pedals N Pears event.

This year’s Pear Blossom Festival theme — Compear Past & Present — is open to interpretation, said Darcy Mann-Self, president of the board for the festival.

“It could be anything people want to think about. Whether it’s buildings, the way the town used to look and the way it looks now, how many pears we used to have and how many we have now, or how many grapes and vineyards we have now,” she said.

Mann-Self has been with the festival for almost half of its 70 years. After 37 years on the Pear Blossom board and 28 years as its president, she has watched the balance between upholding the tradition of the festival while dreaming up new offerings for an ever-changing valley.

“We all have our day jobs, we’re all volunteers. We meet at night to plan,” she said.

“What’s so amazing to us is to have second and third returns, like people saying, ‘My grandma took me and now I’m taking my kids.’”

When it comes to the junior pageant of 4- and 5-year-olds — a tradition dating back to 1957 — Mann-Self has seen generations come through.

“I had a woman call and say she wanted to enter her child, and I said, ‘OK, let’s get you the paperwork, what’s your name.’ She said, ‘Darcy.’ And I said, ‘You don’t see the name Darcy much.’ And the woman said, ‘I know. That’s what you said when you crowned me when I was 5,’” she said.

The senior pageant for high school girls was added in 1991.

“We wanted to do it to offer scholarships and to show the community, you’ve been supporting us, we want to give support to the community,” Mann-Self said.

Through sponsors — Kogap Enterprises for the past 15 years — the young woman crowned queen receives $2,750 for college, and each princess gets $750.

As an increasing number of distillers, makers and new kinds of foodies bloomed in the valley, the festival added the tasting event Pear A Fare 15 years ago.

At 10 a.m., Friday, April 7, under a tent on the southeast corner of Central Avenue and Fifth street, $5 can become five “taste tickets” applicable to a variety of gastronomic delicacies.

The very hungry and curious can buy additional tickets to keep tasting, according to the Pear Blossom website.

To highlight the healthy population of

artisans in the valley, the festival created

the street fair to overlap with the Pear A Fare.

From noon to 10 p.m. Friday, April 7, and 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 8, downtown Medford will host over 150 vendors at Pear Blossom Park, 312 E. Fourth St.

The Smudge Pot Stroll was added 13 years ago to continue celebrating the valley’s wine, and includes downtown restaurants through the ambling eating event. A $40 ticket includes a glass and the opportunity to taste “specially prepared pear- and local food-themed items” at 13 downtown restaurants.”

Six years ago, the Pedals N Pears event was added in response to the growing popularity of cycling in the valley, Mann-Self said.

The 8 a.m Saturday, April 15, event features four rides — all named for local pear varieties — structured around different parts of the Medford area and different difficulty levels. The Comice family ride is easiest. Then the rides increase in difficulty, from the 14-mile Bosc to the 30-mile Bartlett and, finally, the 62-mile Royal Rivera Metric Century. The event uses rider registration fees to support four local charities — Rogue Valley Mentoring, Wilderness Trails, Hearts with a Mission and the Family Nurturing Center. For more information, visit www.pedalsnpears.com/rides/.

The Pear Blossom Run dates back to 1977, only a few years after motorized floats were accepted into the parade. This year’s run will begin at 7 a.m., Saturday, April 8, on Oakdale Avenue and West Eighth Street. A pancake feed and open house at the Rogue Valley Family YMCA, 522 W. Sixth St., begins at 8 a.m., wrapping up at 10:30.

At 11 a.m., the race will clear out for the Pear Blossom Parade downtown.

The parade was the genesis for the festival and remains in many ways its centerpiece. In 1954, groups like the Fruit Grower’s League, Chamber of Commerce, Merchants Association, American Legion and the school district — pillars of the then-small, largely agricultural city of Medford — came together and decided to create an event celebrating the blossoming of the pear trees.

According to the Pear Blossom Festival’s history page, the group decided their celebration would be a parade of little ones, crowning one as “Miss Blossom” to reign over the procession. That first parade included 20 wagons. Two years later, the parade expanded into 100 floats touring 30 miles of blooming orchards. Now, the parade sees about 150 floats and marching groups. Roughly 4,000 people participate in the march, while 25,000 to 30,000 spectators line the parade route.

Census Bureau data from 1950 show the city of Medford boasted roughly 17,170 residents. The entirety of Jackson County had a little over 58,000 residents. Data from 2021 show 86,367 residents of Medford, while the county has 223,529 people within its borders today.

Over the years, the “grand marshal” of the parade has attracted some household names such as President (then senator) John F. Kennedy in 1960, and Leonard Nimoy riding in the back of a convertible dressed as Spock from “Star Trek” in 1967.

In 1985, Medford centenarian Bert Stancliffe held the title, while 1989 featured Mickey Mouse.

This year, the grand marshal is ninth-degree black belt, international fighting champion and sometime Chuck Norris stunt double Chip Wright.

“It’s a great honor, and I’m excited to be involved in the parade again,” Wright said.

Like many others in the valley, he remembered participating at a young age — marching in the parade at 6 years old.

Reached by phone at his new home in Boise, Idaho, Wright responded to questions about his local celebrity with humility.

“Well, if you’re in the same place long enough, people get to know you, and I’ve been around forever,” he said.

He opened his karate studio — Chip Wright’s Champion Karate — in 1975. More than 40 years later, Wright is easing into retirement. He said he returns to the Rogue Valley once a week to visit the studio and help out at his passion project.

“I’m very surprised,” he said of being asked to preside as grand marshal. “I never had an idea anything like that would occur.”

Wright demurred at the idea of showing his own martial arts prowess this year. Displays of that kind will be carried on by Champion Karate students marching in the parade, as they have in many past years.

The parade will start 11 a.m Saturday, April 8, at Beatty Street and Central Avenue and march down Central, turn right onto West Main Street, then come to an end at Mistletoe Street.

For those unwilling to brave parking, crowds or the valley’s fickle spring weather, the parade will be televised live on Local Charter Channel 180, Ashland Home Network Channel 9 and Josephine County Charter 183. Replays will be available on RVTV at 6 p.m. Saturday, according to the Pear Blossom Festival website.

When asked what’s new in the festival this year, Mann-self laughed.

“Every year they ask me that. Everything is bigger and better, now that COVID’s over,” she said.

For more information on the festival and its many facets new and old, visit pearblossomparade.org.