KeizerFEST 2025 is moving back to May, after several years of staging the event in August. This year’s festival will be held Thursday-Sunday, May 15-18. The festival grounds will again be at Keizer Rapids Park. According to Corri Falardeau, executive director of the Keizer Chamber of Commerce, which stages the annual festival, the Chamber wanted to bring all the events back together, to “make it a better festival for the community.” Falardeau added that it was difficult when KeizerFEST was held in August 2024, especially when the Bloomin’ Iris Parade was held in May. Festival organizers decided that staging the event in August did not work. “We found our event was competing with several other events in the area,” Falardeau said, in response to questions from the Keizertimes. By moving the KeizerFEST events back to May, the Chamber believes it will bring out more people to all the events.  Organizers also say the change will be good for the business community, which provides much of the sponsorship money for events. The KeizerFEST committee, led by Chamber President Jeremy Turner and Dave Walery, made the decision to move to May, with the approval of the Chamber board of directors. The decision to move KeizerFEST to August was a result of coming out of the COVID pandemic and the availability of Keizer Rapids Park as the festival site. At the time, the decision to shift to August had a positive reaction from the community.   However, hotter weather in August was one reason organizers favored a return to May this year. With school marching bands difficult to schedule near the end of summer, the Bloomin’ Iris Parade was scheduled in May last year. The 2025 parade will be on Saturday, May 17. This article was originally published in the Keizertimes and is reprinted with permission. Contact Keizertimes at [email protected]. News tip? Email [email protected] MOMENT MORE, PLEASE– If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE. The post KeizerFEST returns to May in 2025 appeared first on Salem Reporter.