Fircrest is roughly one square mile. That geography is the whole trick to this summer. In a bigger town, a Centennial year would sprawl across venues and neighborhoods you'd need to drive between. Here, almost everything worth putting on the July calendar happens at Fircrest Park, on the Community Center Plaza next door, or inside the ring of local businesses stamping passports for the Centennial scavenger hunt. You can walk it.
That's the thesis of this post: the 2026 summer schedule isn't a list of unrelated events. It's a single stitched circuit that turns the entire city into one venue for a hundred-day birthday party, and reading it as a circuit is the difference between showing up for one afternoon and getting the full year.
The Centennial thread you can walk
Two things run underneath the whole summer and don't have a fixed date on them. The first is the Bear & Rhodie Tour, a self-guided walk keyed to over 50 carved bears (and a trio of pigs) scattered around the community, all registered bears marked with a red dot on the map available at the Fircrest Community Center. It starts at Murphy at the Tot Lot and moves outward. The second is the Centennial Passport, a business-to-business scavenger hunt where you pick up a passport at the Community Center or City Hall, visit designated Fircrest businesses to find the "Fircrest Facts" that can only be viewed at each location, get the passport stamped, then present it back at the Community Center for a Limited Edition Murphy magnet. It's running through July 17, which is not an accident. That's the eve of Fun Days. The passport hands you off directly into the biggest weekend of the year.
If you only do one thing on this list, do the passport before it closes. The magnet is a limited run, and the businesses that host stamps are the ones you'll want to know by name for the next hundred years of living here anyway.
July 5: the Rod Run at Fircrest Park
The 38th annual Fircrest Rod Run and Picnic runs Sunday, July 5, 2026, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Fircrest Park, open to all special interest vehicles, $20 entry at the gate, free for spectators, with the Kiwanis breakfast and BBQ, food trucks, music, and goody bags for participants. Read the timing carefully. This lands the day after the Fourth, which means it's the low-friction way to spend a holiday weekend Sunday without leaving town. Bring a chair. The picnic is the point.
The middle stretch: passports, bears, and the pool
Between the Rod Run and Fun Days there's a two-week stretch where the calendar looks empty. It isn't. That's when the passport and the bear map get walked, and when the Edwards Family Aquatic Center at Fircrest Park is doing the daily work of being Fircrest in summer. If you have kids or grandkids visiting, this is the window to knock out the Centennial to-do list before the crowds arrive on the 17th.
A quiet note on the geography: the passport stops are inside the city limits and walkable. If you're used to driving to events, try walking two or three stops in a single afternoon. The route is the reward.
Fun Days, Friday July 17: Cowgirl Tricks and the pie question
Fircrest Fun Days happens July 17 and 18 at Fircrest Park, and the 2026 edition is themed Old West. The Friday opener is Giddyup Productions' Cowgirl Tricks, live on stage at the Fircrest Community Center Plaza on Friday, July 17th at 5:00 pm. That's the anchor. Everything else Friday evening (the variety show, the maker booths, food trucks) orbits it.
The tactical detail worth knowing: if you're entering the Fir'CRUST Pie Bake-off or the Junior Bake-off, Friday is when you're getting your kitchen in order. The bake-offs, the Furry 4K Pet Walk, Kids' Kraft Makers Market, Watermelon Eating Contest, and Yoga in the Park all come back for the Saturday program. If you're going to enter one thing this year, the pie bake-off is the low-lift, high-reward pick. You already bake.
Saturday July 18: from the Plaza to the fireworks
Saturday is the day the whole circuit turns on. Here's the shape of it, from the actual event listings:
| Time | Anchor | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Noon | Beer Garden opens | Fircrest Tennis Courts at Fircrest Park |
| 2:00 pm | "Cheers to Fircrest" group drone photo | Beer Garden |
| Afternoon | Furry 4K Pet Walk, Kidz Zone, Fir'CRUST Pie Bake-off, Watermelon Eating Contest, Yoga in the Park | Fircrest Park |
| Evening | Live concerts, food trucks, maker booths | Fircrest Park |
| Dusk | Fireworks | Fircrest Park |
The Beer Garden runs Saturday, July 18th from noon until 9:00 pm at the Fircrest Tennis Courts, and the day concludes with a spectacular firework show that evening. The 2:00 pm drone photo is the one moment on the calendar that only exists if enough residents actually show up. It's a Centennial time capsule shot. If you've lived here for any length of time, that's the one to stand in.
Two hours to see the whole Saturday if you're pacing it: arrive at 1:30 to walk the maker booths, be in position for the 2:00 photo, then let the kids loose in the Kidz Zone while you circle back for a pie tasting. Come back at dusk for the fireworks. Anyone who tries to do all of it in one push burns out by 5.
The Beer Garden and the 25mph IPA question
Fircrest's residential streets are almost universally posted at 25 mph, and the local joke has become a beer. There's a rumor that Narrows Brewing is bringing back the Fircrest 25mph IPA at the Fun Days Beer Garden this year. Pint Defiance is the Beer Garden Title Sponsor, with the Kiwanis Club of Fircrest as Supporting Sponsor. If the IPA does return, this is the only place and the only weekend to drink it. That's a hyperlocal detail worth showing up for whether or not you drink beer, because the naming itself is a piece of civic self-awareness that only reads if you already live here.
For the 21-and-under contingent, the same footprint at the tennis courts is inside the general Fun Days area, so the split between beer garden and rest-of-park is mostly a fence, not a walk.
What the Strawberry Festival told us in June
The Fun Days weekend didn't come out of nowhere. The Fircrest Strawberry Festival kicked off the summer event season on Sunday, June 28 from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm at Fircrest Park, with the famous Fircrest Kiwanis Strawberry shortcakes and Harbor Greens selling fresh berries. If you went, you already know the shape of what's coming on July 18. If you missed it, the Fun Days Saturday footprint is the same park, the same volunteer bench, and roughly the same walking pattern with a bigger footprint and a fireworks close.
The parenting-focused takeaway: Fun Days is the biggest summer event of the season at Fircrest Park with the Saturday festivities concluding with a fireworks show. Plan around bedtime accordingly.
One outside anchor worth naming
Fircrest Fun Days July 17-18, 5:00-10:30 P.M. at Fircrest Park also shows up on the Visit Pierce County summer calendar alongside the region's bigger draws. Reading it that way is useful for one reason: if you have out-of-town family coming for a July visit, this is the weekend to invite them in. The rest of the county's events (waterfront markets, outdoor cinema, brigade encampments at Fort Nisqually) all cluster in the same window, so a Fircrest-anchored weekend has a soft landing on either side of it.
What this summer actually says about Fircrest
Most towns build a summer calendar by booking bands. Fircrest builds one by asking residents to do things. The passport is you walking. The bear tour is you walking. The pie bake-off is you baking. The drone photo is you standing still for six seconds. The Rod Run is your neighbor showing you the car in the garage. Even the beer is named after the speed limit you already obey.
That's the argument for showing up to more than one thing this July. The events aren't the product. The circuit is. In a Centennial year, the point of walking the circuit is that a hundred years from now, someone will look at that 2:00 pm drone photo and count who was there.
If you're weighing whether to plant deeper roots here, or you've already got a Fircrest home and you're thinking about what the next chapter looks like, this is a good summer to pay attention to how the town works. When you're ready to talk about buying, selling, or a longer-horizon plan for a Fircrest property, Greg Pubols and the team at CENTURY 21 Blue Chip are a phone call away. Schedule a Free Consultation, and we'll bring the same neighborhood attention to your real estate decisions that Fircrest brings to its summer.
