PORT ANGELES — It’s time to have the appetite satisfied and the soul shaken.
The 13th annual Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival opens today with the arrival of some 10,000 pounds of just-caught crab, 12 food purveyors serving everything from quiche to mac and cheese, seven bands playing and 70 food and art booths displaying.
Yes, Crab Fest is here early, on and around City Pier and under the Crab Central canopy at the north end of Lincoln Street.
Instead of opening Friday evening as in past years, the big white tent will be ready at lunchtime, opening at 12:30 p.m. today.
Admission to Crab Fest, which continues through Sunday, is free.
The annual Peninsula Daily News-sponsored Community Crab Feed dinner, available today from 12:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., is $24 — $5 off the $29 charged Saturday and Sunday — for a full-plate dinner of fresh Dungeness crab, Sunny Farms corn on the cob and cole slaw from Nash’s Organic Produce.
A half-plate dinner costs $15 all three days.
Other offerings, such as halibut and chips, Ahi tuna poke, oyster po’boys and vegetarian fare like Lazy J apple pie, will be abundant too, along with local wines and beer.
The Crab Central tent, newly expanded to 11,000 square feet, will be open today from 12:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
The City Pier marketplace will be open today from
12:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
The second annual Benefit Chowder Cook-Off will feature seven cooks and eight chowders Sunday.
The cook-off, which benefits the Captain Joseph House Foundation, will begin at 10 a.m. at The Gateway pavilion, with public sampling at noon, judging at 1 p.m., and awards at 2 p.m. The cost for sampling 2 ounces each of five chowders is $10. Tickets to vote in the people’s choice balloting are $10.
Besides the food and drink, there’s sightseeing.
The Marine Debris Art Contest on Hollywood Beach, between Railroad Avenue and City Pier, presents creatures made of stuff collected on local shores. Port Angeles artists Tammy Hall, Dani LaBlond and Richard Stephens have built these works, and Crab Fest-goers are invited to vote on their favorites. Balloting will continue until 6 p.m. Saturday, with the announcement of the winner on the beach at 1 p.m. Sunday on the beach.
Other Marine Debris Art Show sculptures — two kinds of jellyfish, an eel, a harbor seal and a Dungeness crab, which is open for decoration by passers-by — can also be seen around the festival.
“Hopefully, this contest will become an annual event,” said artist and project organizer Sarah Tucker. She also hopes collecting beach trash to make into art will become, as she puts it, “a creative obsession” across the North Olympic Peninsula.
And for those thirsty for insight into the local marine ecosystem, The Landing mall’s Olympic Coast Discovery Center, accessible from City Pier, will be open throughout Crab Fest weekend.
“Come down early — or late. I always tell people that at festivals,” said Scott Nagel, who helped cook up the Crab Fest concept 14 years ago.
Saturday is the most crowded day, he said. But this afternoon and Sunday, “it’s wide open and we’re waiting for people,” the “we” being the scores of vendors on City Pier and under the Crab Central tent.
Besides the wealth of sights, food and drink, the fest offers plenty of music to hear.
Today alone ranges from country with Buck Ellard at 12:30 p.m. to blues and rock with the Soulshakers from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Soulshakers guitarist Mike Pace has said this will be the band’s final gig as the members pursue other projects.
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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.
