Special Events in Cheney
Lilac Bloomsday Run
An annual timed road race in Spokane, Washington, held the first Sunday of every May since 1977. The course is 12km (7.46mi) long. The course starts in downtown Spokane and heads northwest along the far west end of town, passes by Mukogowa Ft. Wright and Spokane Falls Community College before heading up Doomsday Hill and back downtown to the County Courthouse. Every finisher of the race receives a Bloomsday T-shirt. Bloomsday is also the world's largest timed road race with over 40,000 participants each year.
Don Kardong, who founded the Bloomsday race, cites James Joyce's Ulysses as the inspiration for the name Bloomsday.
Cheney Rodeo Days
Cheney Rodeo Days is held the second weekend in July each year and is a major annual event for the community since 1967. The event is put on by the Cheney Rodeo Association, an includes three days of rodeo competition held at the rodeo ground just north of Cheney. The City of Cheney also holds the Happy Hoofer's Fun Run and the Cheney Rodeo Days Parade through the main street of downtown along with a street fair. The Cheney Rodeo features over $40,000 in prize money, rodeo stock from the National Finals Rodeo, and is a professional rodeo event that is part of the Columbia River Prorodeo Circuit which is part of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, that professional cowboys can use to qualify to join the Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo, and potentially further qualify for a chance to compete at the National Finals Rodeo, the rodeo world championships.
Spokane Hoopfest
Spokane's Hoopfest is the world's largest 3 on 3 outdoor basketball tournament held the last weekend of June each year in downtown Spokane. Each year about 6,000 teams comprising over 24,000 competitors participate in this annual tournament.
West Plains Community Fair
The West Plains Community Fairis held annually on the second weekend in August at the Cheney Rodo Grounds. The Fair includes exhibits by 4-H and Future Farmers of America Clubs, Open Class exhibits, horse show, gymkhana, mules, llamas, dogs, cats, livestock showing, & judging, home etc., floriculture & horticulture exhibits. The purpose of the fair is to give the loca community members from Cheney, Four Lake, Medical Lake & Airway Heights a chance to display their produce, animals and crafts, and have the opportunity to learn by doing. Cheney and the greater West Plains community believe it is important to keep telling the story of productivity of our rural agriculture world to the public, so they too can acquire a feeling of knowing how we provide the food and fiber to feed and cloth our country, and also the world. Many of these skills shown at the fair having been handed down from generation to generation in the local community.