The Banks BBQ returns for 79th year
The Banks BBQ will roll, crash, and hop into Banks Friday through Sunday, August 15–17. Haven't been? Read this story to find out all you need to know.
The Banks BBQ will roll, crash, and hop into town Friday through Sunday, August 15–17.
Thousands will come to eat, drink, cheer their favorite tractor and truck driver, watch frogs hop, wave as the parade rolls by or assemble the best hand in the Friday poker tournament.
The event holds a staggering amount of activities, assembled over nearly eight decades of tradition and through the work of around 500 volunteers every year.
Nearly every Banks business and group will take part in some form, either with volunteer work, a vendor booth, a parade float, a sponsorship of an event, or simply by serving the influx of thousands of visitors the event draws every year.
The Schedule
Friday, August 15
6 p.m. – Hamburger stand, beer garden open
6:30 p.m. – Texas Hold ‘Em tournament registration at Schlegel Hall
7 p.m. – Texas Hold ‘Em tournament begins
8 p.m. – Live music by Huckle Buck Highway begins in the beer garden
Saturday, August 16
11 a.m. – Annual Tractor Pull/Garden Tractor registration opens
12 p.m. - 4 p.m. – Car Cruise In
12 p.m. – Beer Garden opens
1 p.m. - 5 p.m. – Truck registration
1 p.m. – Cornhole tournament
1:30 p.m. – Garden Tractor Pull begins
3 p.m. – Tractor Pull Begins
6 p.m. – Truck Pull Begins/pit sales closed
8 p.m. - 11 p.m. – Live music by Bootleg Ridge Band near the beer garden
Sunday, August 17
7 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. – Hamburger stand opens for breakfast
7:30 a.m. – 11 a.m. – Truck/Tractor/Garden Tractor registration continues
8:30 a.m. – Parade registration begins at the intersection of Main St & Sunset
10:30 a.m. – Trucks lining up – Schlegel Hall
11:00 a.m. – Banks BBQ Annual Parade begins
11 a.m. – Famous BBQ Beef Sandwiches go on sale
12 p.m. – Truck Pull Begins
1 p.m. – Frog Jump/Grease Pole
1:30 p.m. – Annual Tractor & Truck Pull starts
2 p.m. – Kids’ Pedal Pull in track area
4:30 p.m. – Annual Combine Destruction Derby, Pit Sales closed
Prices:
The Banks Post couldn't find 2025 prices for the actual BBQ sandwiches in time for press. Entry to much of the BBQ area is free; the grandstands where the truck and tractor pulls and the derby take place have a fee.
Grandstand entry:
Saturday: Adults $18, Children ages 6-16 $12, 5 & under free
Saturday: Family Pass: $40, good for 2 adults & 2 children
Sunday: Adults $18, Children ages 6-16 $12, 5 & under free
Sunday: Family Pass: $40, good for 2 adults & 2 children
Friday is for beer, burgers, and bets
The event officially begins Friday. The day before, Banks Sunset Park Association leaders will have hosted a media day early Thursday morning to showcase the event for Portland-area TV crews.
Friday, the quietest of the three official BBQ days, will feature live music, a beer garden and hamburger stand, and a Texas Hold ‘Em tournament in Schlegel Hall, which could continue into the wee hours of Saturday.
The beer garden and hamburger stand open at 6 p.m., tourney registration begins at 6:30 p.m., and the tournament begins at 7 p.m.
The finest of Banks' gamblers—nearly 60 played for the pot in 2024—will pay a $50 fee to enter the tournament. Entrants must be 18 or older to play.
The first person eliminated may be the game's biggest loser, but they also win free entry into the 2026 tournament.
The top five players win a percentage of half the purse, while the top three will take home a trophy.
The top 10 players left in the game will also win a free t-shirt, and a high hand pays $50.
Sunset Park is owned and managed by the nonprofit Banks Sunset Park Association. It provides a meeting place for numerous groups inside Schlegel Hall, and hosts youth sports and other activities in the fields that surround it.
Community events like the newly-annual Independence Day celebration grace the parks grounds. The park has been managed by community members since the 1940s.
These images, from the August 14, 1975 copy of the Forest Grove News-Times were discovered and shared with News in the Grove by Friends of Historic Forest Grove volunteer researcher Skip Buhler
“Half the money they enter goes to the park, which keeps up the grounds, provides the fields, and everything for the kids, and helps out with youth sports in Banks,” said Charlie Duyck, Chairman of the Texas Hold ‘Em tournament in 2024.
Event organizers aim to finish the tournament by midnight.
There to buoy their spirits and provide entertainment to the peanut gallery will be country and classic rock band Huckle Buck Highway starting at 8 p.m. in the beer garden.
Saturday sees truck and tractor pulls, cornhole, a cruise-in and more
Car Cruise In
While it's not quite as big as Forest Grove's Concours, auto enthusiasts will find it hard not to enjoy themselves at the Car Cruise In, held in the field just west of Highway 47/Main Street.
The cruise in runs from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The show features 24 different categories, and ranges from motorcycles to muscle cars to best modified vehicles from 1929 and before. Find all the categories online (.pdf).
Cornhole tournament
The fifth annual cornhole tournament to benefit Banks Youth Football is Saturday, and, if the weather holds, it's an outdoor affair, typically held behind Schlegel Hall.
In 2024, dismal weather forced the cornhole tournament to head indoors to Schlegel Hall.
The weather, complete with torrential rain and thunder and lightning that sparked multiple wildfires ended up canceling the Saturday portion of the 2024 Truck and Tractor Pull.
This year, the weather once again shows rain in the forecast for Friday and Saturday, but nothing close (so far) to what happened last year, and as of press time, Sunday remained a rain-free forecast.
Up to 64 teams will be accepted at the tournament, which features prizes, a raffle, and a silent auction with items donated by local businesses and groups.
Domanic Vanthom and Todd Toburen (team name “Cornholio”) took the top spot, defeating back-to-back reigning champions Trask and Tater Applegate in 2024.
Pre-register online by 11 a.m. Saturday, August 16.
Tractor, Truck Pull
Starting at 3 p.m. Saturday, the tractor pull begins on the dirt track at Sunset Speedway, located adjacent to the western edge of Sunset Park.
The pull is followed by the truck pull at 5:30 p.m.
More live music, vendors
At the park, vendors and the beer garden will have been going since noon, and at 8 p.m., outlaw country group Bootleg Ridge Band will begin playing by the beer garden.
The BBQ's biggest day features a parade, a combine destruction derby, and of course, BBQ sandwiches
Sunday is the biggest day of the event.
At the park, the hamburger stand will open at 7:30 a.m., there to serve those who are getting an early start a half-hour later when the 8 a.m. registration begins for the truck, tractor, and garden tractor pulls.
At the other end of town at 8:30 a.m., parade registration begins at the corner of Main Street and Sunset Avenue.
Floats will line up on Commerce Street and in the Mid Columbia Bus Co. parking lot adjacent to the train tracks by the former Hampton Lumber mill, and then enter Main Street/Highway 47 between the Banks Hardware Store and the Bighorn Logging headquarters.
The parade begins at 11 a.m., heading due south on Main Street until it reaches the first Sunset Park driveway across from the Banks Middle and High School parking lot.
Members of the Banks American Legion John Kalmbach Post 90 will raise the flag at noon in front of Schlegel Hall, and the "BBQ" part of the Banks BBQ will begin noon as the grandstands and the beer garden open.
BBQ sandwiches are easy to find. Simply find the longest line in the park and be ready for Chairman of Barbecue Beef Daryl Schmidlin and his crew to feed you. The Banks Post couldn't immediately find prices for this years BBQ sandwiches.
At 1 p.m., the frog jump and grease pole contest begin in the picnic area, and at the Speedway, the tractor and truck pull begins.
In the track area to the west, you'll find the kids' pedal pull.
At 4:30 p.m., the final act of the three-day affair will begin: The Annual Combine Destruction Derby, where hulking farm equipment and their drivers compete in a series of gladiatorial heats, smashing into each other until several heats are held, or none of the machines are operational, whichever comes first. The final victor is typically chosen by the most reliable method possible: Crowd approval.
2024 victor Jared Rigert, driving the Silver Bullet, is sure to return to defend his title of "Combine King."
Sunset Park is located at 12765 NW Main Street.
More information can be found online.
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