PORT ANGELES — The 12th annual Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival will bring tons of sweet local crab and thousands of visitors to Port Angeles this weekend.
The festival, at City Pier and in the Red Lion Hotel parking lot at the intersection of Lincoln Street and Railroad Avenue, celebrates the Dungeness crab, first commercially caught in Dungeness Bay and historically an economic boon to the region.
8,000 to 9,000 pounds
Crab fishers have been plying the waters off the North Olympic Peninsula for about 8,000 or 9,000 pounds of live crab just for the festival’s crab feeds, said Scott Nagel, festival director.
Crab meals will be offered for $29, half-crab dinners for $15, at the tent from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
In addition, local restaurant booths will be open in the festival’s huge circus-style tent Saturday and Sunday.
They will complement the crab feed with more than 30 dishes, including desserts, offering non-seafood dishes and vegetarian choices, as well as a raw oyster bar from Taylor Shellfish Farms and a beer and wine garden.
The tent opens an hour before food service begins.
The festival is not only about eating.
“It’s not all seafood,” Nagel said.
A lineup of local and visiting musicians — from Saturday night’s rock ‘n’ roll group Fat Chance to the Sunday morning Crab Revival featuring gospel music — will keep City Pier rolling in music all weekend long.
Sixty booths, with arts and crafts, food and information from nonprofit organizations, will be open on City Pier, the vendors of which are sponsored by First Federal, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Saturday festivities
On Saturday, events begin long before the opening ceremony at 11 a.m. with a blessing, songs, dances and storytelling by the Lower Elwha Klallam.
Storyteller Elaine Grinnel of the Jamestown S’Klallam and Graham Kerr, the “Galloping Gourmet” of television fame, will officiate.
Before the official opening, the Crab Festival Sand Volleyball Tournament will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday on Hollywood Beach. It goes on until 5 p.m. and then resumes from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Cooking demonstrations
From 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, area chefs will demonstrate cooking at an event sponsored by Columbia Bank at the The Gateway pavilion transit center and hosted by Aaran Stark of Cultivated Palette Catering, who is also executive chef for Jefferson Healthcare hospital in Port Townsend.
Among the chefs will be Kerr, who will demonstrate cooking crab cakes at 2:30 p.m. and sign copies of his most recent book, Growing at the Speed of Life.
The Crab Festival 5K Fun Walk/Run begins at noon Saturday at the Olympic Discovery Trail. Registration will begin at 10:30 a.m.
Entry is $30 per runner at the starting line and includes a T-shirt, a coupon for free entry to the Grab-A-Crab Tank Derby and a $5 coupon toward a crab dinner.
Recreational crab season in the North Olympic Peninsula, from Neah Bay to the Hood Canal, opened Oct. 1 and is expected to remain open through December.
Grab-A-Crab
But the easiest catch is likely to be at the Grab-A-Crab Tank Derby from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, when guests can try to catch a crab with a fishing pole for $5 for 20 minutes fishing.
Catching a crab is completely unpredictable and fun, Nagel said.
“I’ve see a child catch seven and his dad none,” he said.
Crab caught in the derby can be purchased, cooked and cleaned for $10 — half the $20 price for a cooked and cleaned crab at the festival tent.
Featured artist
Clark Mundy — creator of the Feiro Marine Life Center entrance that suspends a giant Pacific octopus, crab and salmon above visitors’ heads — is the featured artist for the 2013 festival.
Spotlighting an artist is a new addition to the festival.
A T-shirt featuring Mundy’s painting “Welcoming Crab,” inspired by Klallam stories and traditions, will be sold at the festival, and Mundy will present his work in a tent.
Mundy — who also created “Kindred Spirits,” a tree sculpture that incorporates a bench currently located inside Feiro’s main tank exhibit room — “is one of the best artists there is,” Nagel said.
The artist is a West End native and now lives in the foothills near Port Angeles.
Mundy will be followed by other artists in the future, Nagel said.
“We will select artists important to the cultural scene, seafaring and other local traditions,” he said.
Locals’ specials Sunday
Also new this year is an expanded selection of Sunday events catering to local residents who may avoid the festival Saturday and Saturday because of the crowds of out-of-town visitors, Nagel said.
The Captain Joseph House Benefit Chowder Cook-Off at the Clallam Transit Center bus lanes will offer chowder for tasting.
The cooking will begin at 10 a.m. Sunday.
Tastings will start at noon or 12:30 p.m. Judging by Kerr will begin at 1 p.m., with an award ceremony at about 2 p.m.
Tickets for five 2-ounce tastes will be $10. Ticket-holders receive one vote per ticket for the People’s Choice Awards.
Entries — with different fees for professionals and amateurs — were due earlier this week.
Proceeds go to the Captain Joseph House, a haven under development in Port Angeles for grieving military families.
Also Sunday will be an old favorite, the Crab Revival.
The third annual Crab Revival will offer traditional religious song and celebration from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at The Gateway pavilion.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
