By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News | Photo courtesy of Helper Saturday Vibes

The wait is nearly over for one of the Castle Country’s premiere events. Helper Saturday Vibes kicks off its 2025 season on Saturday, May 10. With an ‘All About Animals’ theme, the festival aims to connect attendees with their furry friends.

Sydney Ho from the Vibes team joined the KOAL Newsroom to discuss the event’s offseason changes and what’s in store for the season opener.

Opening our discussion, Ho first reflected on the off-season changes Vibes implemented: “The biggest change that we’ve made this year is that every event will have a theme. Usually, we only do half, so about five of them, but this year, all 10 are different themes, and we’re excited about it.”

Another change coming to Helper Vibes is a new Kids Corner coordinator. “We have a new kids coordinator this season named Gabby, and we are still looking for a sponsor for the Kids Corner. So that’s more of a neutral spot this year as opposed to other years, and we’re really excited to see what changes she will bring.”

The kickoff event features an ‘All About Animals’ theme, allowing participants to bring along pets to the festivities. “Bring your friendly pets,” said Ho. “To keep the town nice and clean, we prefer that everyone picks up after themselves, but we love to have everyone bring in their cats, dogs, and other friendly animals. There’s also a pet parade that we do starting at Matsuda’s at 7 p.m. that night.”

The music for the event combines new fare with a fan favorite, as the Glitter Bombs kick things off at 5 p.m., with Creep taking the stage at 7 p.m. “The Glitter Bombs are a band from up north with a female lead singer, and Them and Creep both have a 90s feel to them. So it’s gonna be a good 90s alternative weekend at Vibes.”

As is tradition, each Vibes event features a new specialty margarita courtesy of Bar Manager Shayla Olson. Ho gave a preview of this weekend’s specialty,” the special margarita for this week is going to be a lavender honey margarita. Lavender is very popular these days, and I have tasted it, and it is very good.” Ho continued,” The margarita has a beautiful aroma with the lavender. And our amazing bar manager, Shayla (Olson), infused the honey with lavender, and it’s gonna be good.”

Closing out our conversation, Ho stated,” We’re excited to have you, and we’re excited to have a good summer. There’s going to be food trucks, vendors, the beer garden, and the bands, so it’s going to be a good time. We can’t wait to see you this Saturday.”

Helper Saturday Vibes will run from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on Helper’s Historic Main Street. You can visit Helper Vibes Facebook page or website for more information.