PORT ANGELES — Kurt Ferre didn’t come to this weekend’s Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts to see any particular band.
Instead, he came up from Portland, Ore., for “just the whole experience.
“You buy your wristband, you come and go,” Ferre said Saturday morning as he wheeled his bicycle onto the festival grounds.
The Vern Burton Community Center at Fourth and Peabody streets is the epicenter of the 19th annual Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts, while the music, dance, art, food and drink radiate out — onto the grass in front of the entrance, across the street fair and into downtown Port Angeles, where four more venues have shows today and tonight.
The festival continues through Monday afternoon, with final performances beginning at 3:45 p.m.
Among the dozens of performances this afternoon: Trio Voronezh from Russia at 1 p.m.; Alma y Azucar, purveyors of Mexican music, at 2:30 p.m.; Michael Shrieve’s Spellbinder at 7 p.m.; and soul singer Allen Stone at 8:30 p.m.
That’s just the main stage at the Vern Burton.
Chamber Stage, Elks Lodge, CrabHouse
On the adjacent Chamber Stage, the rock ‘n’ roll band SuperTrees will start the day with an acoustic set at 11:30 a.m., and Canadian comic Damonde Tschritter will step up at 8:15 p.m.
On the Elks Naval Lodge stage, 131 E. First St., today starts with a Zumba class at 11:30 a.m., then features jazz vocalist Halie Loren at 3:30 p.m. and the Olympic Express big band at 7:30 p.m.
The CrabHouse at the Red Lion Hotel at 221 N. Lincoln St. has SuperTrees at 2 p.m., the country-soul band Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers at 3:30 p.m. and Cort Armstrong and Blue Rooster at 5 p.m.
Then there are the After Hours performances included in the festival pass price of $20.
These 10 p.m. shows include Bluhm & the Gramblers at the Elks, Tschritter at the CrabHouse, acoustic guitarist Brooks Robertson at Bella Italia, 118 E. First St., and the rock-bluegrass-world-music band Polecat at Bar N9ne, 229 W. First St.
Outdoor activities today include an African drumming workshop at 12:30 p.m., dancing by the Na Hula ‘o Wahine women at 2 p.m. and Hapy’s Oasis Dance Co. at 3:15 p.m.
All three will be outside the Vern Burton center, which also is the place to purchase festival passes.
For more information, visit www.JFFA.org or find the Juan de Fuca Fest on Facebook.
Festival Executive Director Dan Maguire, meanwhile, admitted that it can be tough to decide which venue to visit for which band.
“People have to clone themselves,” he joked. “Next year, we’ll have a cloning machine.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
