TOPPENISH —The annual Toppenish event that has always been a one-day celebration will break with tradition and double down in honor of its 20th year.
Mural-In-A-Day began in 1989, with the painting of “Clearing the Land,” a 14X40-foot mural in the downtown core.
Each years since then, on the first Saturday in June, a new mural goes up.
This year, the mural will be painted on the south side of the new Toppenish Visitor Center, at 504 S. Elm St., during the special two-day version of the event.
Susan Treneer, executive director of the Mural Society and the Chamber of Commerce, said the mural will be “transportation related,” but the exact subject matter hasn’t been revealed yet.
The extra day of the event will be put to good use, with a variety of special events and activities, Treneer said.
MIAD begins Friday, June 5, and lead artist Roger Cooke will begin preparation of the paints and “cartooning” the mural concept on the visitor center wall, sometime after 6 p.m.
A beer garden will be set up in Post Office Park during the afternoon and evening.
On Saturday, June 6, about a dozen artists will join Cooke in an efforet to complete the painting before dinner time, Treneer said.
In the meantime Toppenish will host a mural-in-a-day treasure hunt. Everyone who finds all the murals-in-a-day and gets their “passport” stamped will be entered in a drawing for a great prize courtesy of a local Toppenish merchant.
Also of interest on the same weekend will be the Treaty Days parade at the Yakama Nation Cultural Center at 10 a.m., and the Annual Treaty Days All-Indian Rodeo will be going on in the neighboring town of White Swan.
All the Toppenish murals can be viewed at a leisurely, horse-drawn pace with a mural tour, which will be in full swing by then.
There have been additional murals sponsored by local groups or families so the town boasts 70 murals; all financed through memberships and donations. 
Each one is a historically accurate representation of a person, place or event in the history of the area, but each also represents the level of community support this project has sustained over a 20-year period, Treneer said.
Visitors may also enjoy a tour of the Northern Pacific Railway Museum and the American Hop Museum.
More information is available at www.toppenish.net or by calling 800-863-6375.