By SAMANTHA SWINDLER/The Oregonian/OregonLive
In many countries, the first of May is International Workers Day, a holiday commemorating the working class and the gains of the labor movement. But in the United States, this day is officially a federal holiday known as Loyalty Day — and Newport is one of the few cities that celebrates it.
Newport’s long-standing annual event on Saturday features a parade, a royal court and the blessing of the coastal city’s fishing fleet.
The origins of Newport’s Loyalty Days can be traced to 1938 and the town’s first Newport Crab Festival.
Sachiko Otsuki, curator for the Lincoln County Historical Society, said that early event drew thousands of people to Newport the first weekend in May with the promise of free Dungeness crab. An exhibit at the historical society’s Pacific Maritime Heritage Center includes the 1941 proclamation for the fourth annual Crab Festival, in which Mayor Andrew Naterlin instructed the town’s citizens to “give recognition of his majesty, the Jumbo Crab.”
Otsuki said the festival was an effort to stimulate the local economy at a time when crab prices were low.
The Crab Festival was paused during World War II, then revived in 1947. But as the price of crab rose, the festival lost money. The Crab Festival was canceled after 1951, but Otsuki it was replaced by a modest Loyalty Day celebration in 1953.
An organized parade for the Loyalty Days & Sea Fair Festival began in 1957.
The concept of a Loyalty Day gained popularity throughout the U.S. during the Cold War era of the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was a patriotic call for Americans to counter Russia’s May Day, also called International Workers Day.
Portland held its first Loyalty Day parade in 1949. In 1950, Oregon Gov. Douglas McKay designated May 1 as a statewide Loyalty Day holiday.
President Dwight Eisenhower declared the first Loyalty Day on May 1, 1955, and in 1958, Congress made it an annual holiday. It’s been celebrated ever since, with subsequent presidents issuing Loyalty Day proclamations every year.
“Through abolition, the Civil War, women’s suffrage, the Great Depression, World Wars, and the Civil Rights Movement, the idea of America animated our many movements and gave us hope for a better future,” read President Joe Biden’s proclamation from 2024. “Today, that light — that promise — still shines brightly as we build an America that is more prosperous, free, and just.”
This year’s proclamation has not yet been issued.
Newport’s effort keeps going
And while most cities’ events died out as the Cold War thawed, the Newport celebration kept going. This weekend’s is the 68th celebration.
JoAn McAdams, 90, organized the Newport event off and on for about 20 years, starting in the 1950s.
“In those days it was quite big,” she said. “Russia had a May Day, and the United States felt that we needed to have something to combat that.”
Navy ships would arrive in Newport from other cities for the event, she said. Canadian fleets would attend. And crab was still part of the draw, even if it was no longer free. A crab dinner cost $1.75 a plate in 1970.
Only a handful of U.S. cities still hold Loyalty Day celebrations — an online search found just seven other events still happening in 2025. Only Long Beach, Wash. has an older Loyalty Days parade — that event began in 1950.
“We are lucky that we do have people that are still wanting that old tradition of having this parade,” McAdams said. “Of course, it’s not as big as it was, but we still have (U.S. Highway) 101 lined with people.”
This year, Newport’s Loyalty Days kicks off with a veteran’s lunch at noon Friday, May 2 at the Newport 60+ Activity Center. Then, the new queen of the Loyalty Days Royalty Court will be crowned during an event at 7 p.m. at the Newport Elks Lodge.
Highway 101 is shut down for the parade starting at 11 a.m. Saturday. At 11:30 a.m., participants in the Loyalty Days Fun Run can race the one-mile length of the parade route, starting at the intersection of Highway 101 and 20th Street North, heading south to U.S. Highway 20. The Loyalty Days parade follows at noon.
“Last year, we had pouring down rain and we had 92 entries out of 97 to show up,” said Mary Buck, president of the Loyalty Days organizing committee.
Following the parade, the 234th Army Band will give a free concert at 2 p.m. at the Newport Armory.
A full list of Loyalty Days events can be found on the group’s Facebook page.
Today, the festival is less about fighting communism and more a show of support for local veterans and military members. Both McAdams and Buck said Newport’s status as a “Coast Guard City” is part of why Loyalty Days remains popular.
“We’re not stating that people can’t believe what they want to believe,” Buck said. “It’s just a way to show the military population that we still honor them.”
— Samantha Swindler covers features for The Oregonian/OregonLive and Here is Oregon. Reach her at sswindler@oregonian.com.
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