Bellevue celebrates 50 years of Heritage Days festival - KWWL

2012 marks the Bellevue Heritage Days celebration's 50th anniversary, and thousands came out this weekend to join in the fun.

Bellevue's Cole Park was transformed into a festival atmosphere.

Local dancers performed for the crowd, while kids enjoyed carnival rides and games.

The fun kicked off Friday with this year's Heritage Days Queen pageant.

To celebrate the festival's 50-year-mark, the city invited back all of its past Heritage Days queens. More than 20 of them were able to make the hometown trip.

Nicole Yeager won this year's pageant.

"It's kind of like Bellevue's homecoming," Yeager said, of Heritage Days. "A lot of people come home. You see a lot of faces you don't normally see, and we're all really close. I know probably almost everyone."

At the Heritage Days parade in 2010, two horses pulling a buggy in the parade lineup got spooked and bolted through the crowd, trampling several people and killing one woman. Since then, however, the town has had two safe Heritage Days celebrations.