The Dos Palos Lions Club Cotton Festival wrapped up its four days of fun and activities, and organizers are already looking for ways to improve the festival in the coming years.
The highlight of the festival was the selection of the 2024 Miss Dos Palos. Sofia Miller, a senior at Dos Palos High School, was crowned the Miss Dos Palos Queen at the annual pageant which was held at the D.E.S. Hall. Lexi Moss was named first runner-up.
The Teen Miss Dos Palos is Sheyanne Bryant, and the first runner-up is Hayley Cotta.
Makenna Ptacek was picked as the Miss Pre-Teen and Paula Cotta was the first runner-up. The Little Miss Dos Palos was Camila Soliz and the first runner-up was Zadie Gonzales.
Avery Gonzales was selected as the Tiny Miss Dos Palos and Olivia Vargas was selected as first runner-up.
Pageant director Shelly Wright remarked that the attendance at the pageant was great and the evening went very well.
“The students from Katy Miller’s class out at Westside High did an excellent job with the table decorations and setting up and cleaning up afterwards,” said Wright. “The students were amazing.”
Wright also organizes the Friday evening parade and she said that participation was down.
“The parade needs a little help,” she explained. “It’s September, and we had a football game out of town, and that hindered us a bit.”
Attendance at the carnival and fair on Friday was also down, according to Donald Vincent of the Lions Club.
“Friday wasn’t good,” said Vincent. “But Saturday went well. The carnival was packed and so were the booths.”
The Saturday evening show put on by Elvis Presley Tribute Artist Lloyd Aron Douglas was well-received with a good and appreciative crowd in attendance, Vincent added.
“Lloyd did a great job,” said Vincent. “He stayed after his show and took a lot of photos with people. He really enjoyed coming to town.”
Vincent added that Sunday’s attendance was steady but petered out at about 9 pm, probably because it was a school night.
“It looked like the booths did well. I hope they made some money for their effort,” he said. “And we had no problems with the crowds at all.”
With that said, the Lions Club will be working with the carnival provider to come up with a summer date next year before school starts.
“We are already talking about next year and working to get some dates before school starts. Hopefully, we can get the festival back to before school starts.”
