The Purposeful Promotion Award is an award that recognizes creative, effective promotional campaigns that celebrate and attract visitors and residents to the downtown or neighborhood commercial district. The Downtown Aberdeen Association has been named the 2025 Purposeful Promotion Award recipient for its Make Music Day event, which began only two years ago.

The Fête de la Musique is a world music day that takes place annually on summer solstice in countries all over the world. Given its musical roots as the home of Nirvana, Aberdeen decided to participate in 2023. From pulling together 40 local musicians in 2023, to more than 150 (including some notable headliners) in 2024, to a two-day festival with 28 performance stages and more than 1,500 volunteer hours in 2025, Make Music Day Aberdeen has exploded and gained national media attention. The 2025 event included kids’ activities, instrument-making workshops, gallery tours, 28 businesses working in collaboration, partnerships with First Nations and Tribal representatives, the grand reopening of the historic theater, flying in a Native rock band to promote their record label, and Aberdeen’s busiest weekend, both in terms of tourism and commerce, of the year. It’s even being called “the festival that’s changing everything” by local media.

“This year’s event went by a second name: The Come as You Are Festival. [Downtown Aberdeen Association executive director Wil Russoul] describes Nirvana legend and Aberdeen son Kurt Cobain’s take on the phrase ‘come as you are’ as a dynamic mix of acceptance, we are here now, and this moment will be a memory that you get to have for the story of your life,” noted Washington State Main Street Program Director Breanne Durham at the Excellence on Main ceremony. “The same could be said of this purposeful promotion and the innumerable sparks it is creating in and for Aberdeen.” Durham personally presented the Purposeful Promotion Award to Downtown Aberdeen Association executive director Wil Russoul, who was in attendance at the awards ceremony.