It currently attracts over 200,000 festival goers. All can enjoy a northwest version of fair cuisine, including the Kiwanis Salmon Bake, berries and cream, kettle korn and funnel cakes. And of course all can learn more about the salmon. Downtown Issaquah proudly encompasses the Washington State Salmon Hatchery. The hatchery is sited on Issaquah Creek and the salmon can swim all the way to the holding tanks.
Visitors can follow the salmon as they complete the final stage of their journey.
Part of the fascination for the onlooker is seeing such large fish in such shallow water. The salmon make their way up the fish ladder and into the holding tanks. Such is the instinctual drive to return to their place of origin, that some individuals, mistaking the direction of the ladder, will leap with shocking force into the overhead bars. Don't be fooled by the festival atmosphere - this is nature in the raw. Emaciated and even decomposing due to freshwater bacteria, these creatures are in the process of giving up their lives for the next generation.