Here’s a quick bit on the upcoming Harvest Festival you can send on to your friends and relatives.

The Third Annual Harvest Festival, Sept. 12-14, at North Dam Park, is a fun festival for the entire family and a good way to polish off what has been a great summer.

And it’s free!

Always wanted to take a helicopter ride? You can do it at this year’s Harvest Festival, at a nominal price. Soar through the sky and look down on the things you’ve seen all year long, except from a different vantage point. Rides are available from 11 a.m. to dusk on Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Get on a hay wagon and relive those early days when the horse drawn wagon was a common mode of transportation. You can Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at North Dam Park.

Can you bake a berry pie? There’s competition in the berry and apple pie-baking event. Judging will begin at 1 p.m. Saturday in the picnic area with winners announced at 2 p.m. Bring two pies, one for judging and the second for a pie raffle.

One of the featured events is the barbecue competition. This is serious stuff for barbecue enthusiasts and some of the best in the Pacific Northwest are head our way.

Luckily for them, we also have an excellent beer garden planned, featuring brews from one of our favorite Washington state microbreweries, Iron Horse Brewery. Among the brews featured: High Five Heffe, 509 Style, and, of course, Irish Death. (That last one is so smooth and not bitter, for a dark beer, that you’re tempted not to take it seriously, a mistake at least one ex-sailor I know won’t repeat.) For those of you not into such craft beers, and there are a lot of you, the beer garden will also be stocked with Bud Light.

That’s Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Judging and the awards ceremony begin at 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Samples will be available for purchase. The BBQ event is in conjunction with the Pacific Northwest Barbecue Association. Ribbons and trophies will be given and there are some $3,500 worth of cash prizes. The chamber of commerce, organizer of the festival, has info and a signup sheet here.