By SUSAN PARK

The Lake City Pioneer Days Festival, held yearly the first weekend in August in the "downtown" neighborhood core at NE 125th Street and Lake City Way has gotten a facelift and changed its name to The Lake City Summer Festival. But is a 60th anniversary the year to rename a festival?

The Lake City Chamber of Commerce-produced event still features many favorite festivities run by long-time volunteers: Art in the Park (actually called Family Fun in the Park) created by Molly Burke; the Classic Car show run by Jim Sullivan; the Lake City Community Center's yearly Salmon Bake put on by the Lions Club; Beer Gardens run by Dave Adair with help from Kris Oswald; the Kiddie's Parade sponsored by the Lake City Rotary; the street fair vendor booths coordinated for the first time by Neal Lessenger (previously by the Chamber Executive Director); and the Grand Parade organized by Lake City Vigilantes' Dick Wipple.

One major change this year: for the first time ever, the Chamber has hired an outside fundraiser, Ezra Basom, to gather sponsorship support to help grow the event. In previous years, both volunteers and the Lake City Chamber executive director carried the burden of both overall organizer and fundraiser.

The change has created some major improvements: the Entertainment Stage has a budget for the first time ever. For the past four years, this newspaper has managed to get bands to play for free or prize money by holding contests with entry fees, wrangling good friends to play for free, or shelling out the newspaper's own dough. Five years ago, another businessman, Leon Johnson paid roughly $2,000 out of pocket to make the event happen. With the new budget, he's on board again. "It's less work this way," he says.

Also new this year is a second beer garden beside the Entertainment Stage.

The Chamber has also paid to produce its own full-color program and poster. While some festivals such as the University Street Fair and Fremont Oktoberfest are heading back to grassroots and taking advantage of newspaper-sponsored programs, Lake City is gearing up to follow in the footsteps of the hugely popular Fremont Fair by producing its own.

Some changes are not as popular: The name change from Pioneer Days to Summer Festival for one. Pioneer Days, although "hickish" to some, is "quaint and friendly" to others. The "Kiddie's Korral" horse rides; the cowboy hat-wearing Vigilantes arresting innocent bystanders for not wearing charity donation badges; the previous acceptance of fake guns used by drill teams, Vigilantes, and the Seafair Pirates; and the local Indian-style salmon bake screamed "Wild West" to me. Oh well, like all trends, this one, too, will surely pass.