SEQUIM — To pique your senses Saturday: Jose’s Famous Salsa, Mexican ceviche and tamales hot or mild. Hot, locally roasted coffee from the Rainshadow cafe. Just-picked vegetables from the Dungeness Valley. Chocolates from Jim Queen’s Chocolate Serenade kitchen.
This all-out pleasure feast is known as the Spring Fling, and it fills the Guy Cole Convention Center at Carrie Blake Park, 202 N. Blake Ave. Admission is free, though you may want to bring money for edible treats and gifts.
Food, art and more
Saturday’s event, which features food, art and flower vendors from in and around Sequim, will be open from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., with live music by singer-songwriter-fiddler-guitarist Buck Ellard from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m.
Those are the same hours for the Sequim Open Aire Market, whose opening day is Saturday, May 5, on Cedar Street between Sequim and Second avenues.
The Spring Fling is a preview of the real Open Aire thing, with veteran vendors alongside newcomers.
The new ones include Jill Levatai, whose business is called New Social Club.
“She is upcycling sweaters and more into amazing long jackets with 5-foot-long pixie hoods,” said Open Aire Market manager Lisa Bridge.
Also new to the market is Sequim artist Jean Wyatt, who makes brightly hued floor mats.
Then “there will be fresh pussywillows and lots of produce from Nash’s Organic,” Bridge added.
The Spring Fling features the fruit of two pottery studios, Studio by the Creek and Laughing Loon, while Val Jackson of Whimsical Woods will be on hand with his gnome homes and birdhouses.
For children and anyone who enjoys working with clay and color, Sonja Younger will be selling her sparkly, scented modeling clay — called KidDo — and homemade chalk.
To find out more about the Open Aire Market, its vendors and their spring-through-fall season, visit www.SequimMarket.com, phone 360-460-2668 or email manager@sequimmarket.com.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
