MENDOCINO CO., 8/30/26 — Great Day in Elk kicked off at noon with a parade featuring the Junior Lifeguards, Elk’s fire trucks, a float of participants dressed in seaweed, among others. MendoTaiko, a Japanese drumming group based in Mendocino with deep ties to Miasa, Mendocino’s sister township in Japan, opened the music for the day, followed by Jason Beard’s Bring Joy, which played through the rest of the afternoon.
The afternoon was filled with a wide array of activities: a silent auction, a full lunch and dinner spread ranging from tamales to lemon chicken, a T-shirt booth, a sugar shack stocked with sweets, and separate booths for sundaes and margaritas. Mendocino High School Principal Tobin Hahn was back at the focaccia booth.
A group dressed in seaweed dances on a float at the Great Day in Elks annual parade in Elk, Calif. on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026. The event is a fundraiser for the Greenwood Community Center. (Mandela Linder/Bay City News) 
MendoTaiko, a Japanese performance group from Mendocino, Calif., performs at the Greenwood Community Centers annual fundraiser, Great Day in Elk, in Elk, Calif. on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026. (Mandela Linder/Bay City News) 
Reef Patton climbs the grease pole in an attempt to reach the $100 prize at the top during Great Day in Elk on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in Elk, Calif. The annual event is a fundraiser for the Greenwood Community Center. (Mandela Linder via Bay City News) 
Sara Rose shows off her cake at the cake auction at the Great Day in Elk in Elk, Calif. Aug. 29, 2026. The Great Day in Elk is an annual event to raise money for the Greenwood Community Center. Roses cake sold for $1,400. (Giovanna Pagano via Bay City News)
A packed children’s area drew a steady crowd all day, with a sandbox, a T-shirt painting station and at least one activity involving a kiddie pool that was too engulfed with littles to get a clear look at. Kids also faced off in a watermelon-eating contest and a gunny sack race.
The event’s classic grease pole, with $100 waiting at the top, kept kids climbing and sliding back down for most of the afternoon before someone finally reached the top around 5 p.m.
The cake auction remained a high point of the day. The top bid, $1,600, went to a cake donated by Franny’s Cup and Saucer in Point Arena.
By late afternoon, a stiff wind picked up, and the crowd, which spanned generations from newborns to elders, began to thin as the festivities wound down around 5 p.m. and handed off to Great Night in Elk.
Fifty years in, and the town of Elk still knows how to throw a party.