A concert at the farm will be held Saturday, Aug. 1, and then the traditional Sunflower Festival will be held at O’Keefe Farms on the weekends of Aug. 8-9 and 15-16, with more than 60 varieties of sunflowers, plus music, food, arts, and crafts

Paul Valencia
Clark County Today

The community needed a place to gather … outside.

The community needed something positive. Something beautiful, too.

The owners of O’Keefe Farms had an idea.

Years later, that idea has turned into an annual tradition celebrated by the Hockinson community.

It is about that time for the Sunflower Festival at O’Keefe Farms.

New this year is the kickoff concert. An AC/DC tribute band, Shoot to Thrill, will salute those who are about to rock with a 6 p.m. concert on Saturday, Aug. 1

And in the following two weekends, the fields will be open for an admission price with acres of sunflowers to experience in all their wonder. Vendors. Musicians. Food, and more.

Pat O’Keefe remembered when he and his wife Kelly came up with the idea. They were stuck in the family home for a few days during the pandemic.

“Maybe we should have a maze or something,” Pat said. “Or let’s plant a whole bunch of sunflowers, see how many we can get. That way, people can go outside, there’s somewhere to go, there’s something to do.”

Kelly responded with a sheepish, I don’t know.

And then … this is crazy, but OK.

The festival has grown from there.

At one point, they had 70 different varieties of sunflowers. Pat said they have “dialed it back” this year to just more than 60 varieties.

“We have to plant them at different times throughout the spring and early summer so they bloom at the same time,” he said.

The festival attracted close to 1,000 people a day last year.

“We’ve developed a relationship with the community. It’s a nice, safe place to come,” Pat said. “The vendors we have are amazing. They do a great job with all of their crafts. They are true artists. And people like the farm experience. We have several people who come out here every year to have their family photo taken in the field.”

There is a hay ride, and an area to pet goats, as well.

“It’s a mellow event, but it’s a good family event,” Pat said.

Well, the concert might not be so mellow. The marketing for the concert describes it as a PG-13 event. It is a rock concert, after all. Tickets to the concert are going fast, but as of Friday, July 31, they were still available at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/shoot-to-thrill-tickets-1987711713242

Pat O’Keefe said up to 500 people can gather in front of the outdoor stage for the show. He hopes having a concert will become a tradition, too.

“We wanted someone who was going to blow the doors off,” he said of the first concert. “We want people to say, ‘Hey, O’Keefe Farms is having another concert. We’ve got to go.’”

Plus, he would love to get music lovers to return to the farm the next two weeks for the traditional sunflower viewing experience.

Normally, the Sunflower Festival runs over three weekends, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. After talking to vendors and volunteers, they all agreed that it became too much. So this year, the traditional sunflower viewing will be Aug. 8-9 and Aug. 15-16 — Saturdays and Sundays, from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children 6-12. Children 5 and younger are free.

O’Keefe Farms is located at 17604 NE 182nd Ave., Brush Prairie … just down the road from Hockinson Market.

The event is run by the family, too. Pat and Kelly’s daughter, Savannah, is a recent graduate of Hockinson High School.

“It’s kind of a lot,” Savannah said, but the good kind of a lot of hard work.

“Every year, I’ve been able to bring out friends to come out to help. I get to have fun and work at the same time. I’ve developed life skills.”

Putting on the festival has become a labor of love.

“Some days I wonder, why do I do it,” Pat said. “It’s one of those things we’ve built. We don’t want it to go away. Each year, it gets better and better.”

“My why is different than your why,” Savannah told her dad.

“It’s kind of because I have to,” she said with a laugh.

But honestly, Savannah said, she loves spending time with her friends who join the family every year to make the festival what it has become.

And the Sunflower Festival has become a tradition.

“Nice just to be able to have something that you are proud of and you get to share with the community,” Pat O’Keefe said. “Because the Hockinson community has been so, so supportive to us. I don’t want to let them down.”