If the fish are not biting on Lake Shelbyville, Findlay residents are inviting fishermen and visitors to their community for a great fish sandwich. Findlay’s biggest event of the year, the Walleye Festival, is set for Friday, July 25, and Saturday, July 26. This annual Walleye Festival always brings visitors to the lake and locals from surrounding areas to this small community on Lake Shelbyville for some good food and a great time.

“The festival will have a start-to-finish lineup of great entertainment, along with vendors, both food and craft and, of course, the famous Walleye sandwiches,” said Patty Totten, chairperson of the Walleye Festival. “The village of Findlay helps with the festival by providing trash pickup and port-a-potties.”

The festival will feature several country music artists and 70s to 90s rock bands at two different stages during the two-day venue.

The Community Center will hold an ice cream social starting at 5 p.m. Pauline Boehm will be in charge of this event. She said this will be an old fashion ice cream social with old fans and lamps.

“The ice cream is home made and we will have several favors available along with cake, pie and iced tea,” said Boehm. “This will be located in the Community Center next to city hall.”

Boehm said the social will go on as long as they have ice cream and customers so there is no quitting time.

Also featured are demonstrations by Pearcy’s Tae Kwon Do, and Kris’s Power Tumbling. There will be kiddie tractor pulls and garden tractor pulls on Saturday.

Totten said other happenings at the festival include a big auto, truck and motorcycle show on Saturday evening.

“Registration for the show is 4-6 p.m. with judging at 6 p.m. and awards at 8 p.m.,” continued Totten.

The parade starts at 10 a.m. and goes down Division Street. Joyce White is in charge of the parade and she said they are still looking for entries for the parade.

“Any group wishing to be in the parade should meet at the middle school at 9:30 a.m.,” said White. “We are hoping for a big parade, the more entries the more people enjoy it.”

After the parade, Ken Bast will perform on his Clavinova.

Other musical groups lined up to perform are:

The Hitmen on Friday night at the beer tent. Misdemeanor will perform after the parade from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. Also on Saturday, Pop Rocks will perform at 8 p.m. at the beer tent and Wes Wheeler will perform at 8 p.m. downtown.

A new event this year will be the 3X3 AMD Memorial Basketball Tournament which will start at 11 a.m. in the Findlay park. This is a coed tournament and because this is the first year for it, the organizers are holding it down to kids entering the 6th and 7th grade as one division and kids entering the 8th and 9th grade in another division. This event is organized by Tony and Amie Sparks with help from Shannon and Nikki Cloyd as well as Jason Coventry. This tournament is in memory of Angela Marie Diss, the daughter of John and Sondra Diss.