Free weekly outdoor concerts by area favorites will be presented this summer on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Sequim has the Music Where You Park series going on right now each week at 6 p.m. Tuesdays, produced by Sequim Community Broadcasting/KSQM Radio.
Visitors attend in their cars to listen to local musical talents’ radio interviews or the bands playing live at various venues. Guests can stroll the grounds while listening. Food and beverages are available for purchase, or people can bring their dinners.
The series, which began June 22, will run though July 27.
It will be followed by Music in the Park at the James Center for the Performing Arts in Carrie Blake Park, 500 N. Blake Ave., beginning Aug. 3. This series will also be at 6 p.m. Tuesdays. The City of Sequim and the City Arts Advisory Commission are co-sponsoring the series with Sequim Community Broadcasting/KSQM Radio.
Port Angeles Concerts on the Pier begin Wednesday.
The free live concerts will be at 6 p.m. on City Pier through Aug. 25. They will be moved to the Gateway Transit Center if shelter is needed.
The concerts are sponsored by Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts.
Port Townsend’s weekly Concerts on the Dock series will be from Aug. 5 through Sept. 2 each Thursday at Pope Marine Park Plaza on Water Street at Madison Street.
The plaza will open for people to set up lawn chairs and picnic blankets at 4:30 p.m. each Thursday; live music flows from the stage from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
The free two-hour shows will feature rock’n’roll, rhythm and blues, classic soul, Motown and the concerts will be replete with local bands, beer, wine and cider
The events, which have attracted 300 to 400 people to the park in past year, were canceled in 2020. But Mari Mullen, executive director of the Port Townsend Main Street Program, said “we’re forging ahead” this summer.
“Things will look different this year, with some elements scaled back from a typical year to allow more space,” she said.
Here are the schedules:
Sequim
Music Where You Park
• Today — Craig Buhler Jazz Trio at George Washington Inn, 939 Finn Hall Road.
• July 13 — Cort Armstrong & Paul-Stehr Green/Backwoods Hucksters, KSQM Studios at 609 W. Washington St., Suite 17.
• July 20 — Kalen Wolfe & The Shift at Sequim Valley Airport, 468 Dorothy Hunt Lane.
• July 27 — John Hoover & The Mighty Quinns at Purple Haze Organic Lavender Farm, 180 Bell Bottom Road.
Music in the Park — All at Carrie Blake Park
• Aug. 3 — Stardust Big Band, big band jazz.
• Aug. 10 — Navy Band Northwest, classical, dixieland, jazz and contemporary.
• Aug. 17 — Bread & Gravy, Americana, blues, classic rock and soul.
• Aug. 24 — Buck Ellard Band, mix of traditional country mixed with classic rock, blues and originals.
• Aug. 31 — Black Diamond Junction, classic hits.
The grand finale of the Sequim summer series will be from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 11, at the James Center for the Performing Arts in Carrie Blake Park, 500 N. Blake Ave.
Tess Teel Trio will perform from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and Sound Advise with Dawn Martin will be on stage from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.
For more information about the series in Sequim, see sequimwa.gov/512/Summer-Music-vents
Port Angeles
• Wednesday — AntBath, garage surf.
• July 14 — Abakis, vintage country
• July 21 — Crushwater, alternate folk, rock.
• July 28 — Pato Banton & the New Generation, reggae
• Aug. 4 — Ranger & the Re-Arrangers, gypsy jazz.
• Aug. 11 — Backwoods Hucksters, Americana and blue.
• Aug. 18 — Three Too Many, rock covers.
• Aug. 25 — Black Diamond Junction, classic hits.
For more information about Port Angeles concerts, see jffa.org/concerts-on-the-pier or call 360-457-5411.
Port Townsend
Aug. 5: Uncle Funk & the Dope 6, with a free-ranging set list of rock, funk and R & B.
Aug. 12: Abakis, aka Aba Kiser, blends classic soul, powerhouse vocals and Kottke-style fingerpicking guitar.
Aug. 19: Sound Advice, featuring vocalist Dawn Martin, dishes out Motown, soul and rock ’n’ roll.
Aug. 26: The Merry Makers mix psychedelia and roots rock.
Sept. 2: Kevin Mason and the PT All Stars, with singer Christa Holbrook, travel from soul to rock to rhythm and blues.
Sponsors and volunteers help make this series happen, Mullen noted, and the Main Street Program can use more. For information about Concerts on the Dock and other fall and winter events in the works, see PTmainstreet.org, phone 360-385-7911 or email admin@ptmainstreet.org.
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Jefferson County senior reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz and Executive Editor Leah Leach contributed to this story.
