PORT ANGELES — Anna Manildi stood in the eye of a festive hurricane as the sights, smells and sounds of the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts swirled around her Saturday.
“So far so good,” said Manildi, the executive director of the Port Angeles event.
“Last night was great. It was one of our best Friday nights in years.”
A combination of stellar acts like The Bobs at the Vern Burton Community Center, 308 E. Fourth St., and cooler-than-usual weather drew the crowds to the 17th annual event, Manildi said.
“The weather might help us,” she said. “People want to be inside.”
When the four-day festival ends Monday, Manildi will step down as executive director, a post she has held for 10 years.
Under her leadership, the Memorial Day weekend festival has been one of the largest events on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Performances on six stages
This year’s festival was scheduled to have 145 music, dance, theater, storytelling and children’s performances on six stages at the Vern Burton Center, Elks Naval Lodge, Port Angeles Fine Arts Center and Port Angeles Community Playhouse.
There are 15 food vendors set up on Fourth Street near the Vern Burton Center — the festival’s home base — with rows of merchants selling arts and crafts.
Jim and Kathy Rankin of Port Angeles were having lunch under cloudy skies Saturday as they waited for their favorite musical act, Sequimarimba, perform lively marimba music on the outdoor stage at the Vern Burton Center.
“You can’t sit still or stand still,” Kathy Rankin said of the performance.
“And they don’t either,” Jim Rankin added.
“They just have a wonderful time.”
The Rankins have attended the Juan de Fuca Festival in each of the past six years.
“The thing we like about it is the variety,” Jim Rankin said.
As Christian Swenson captivated an audience of more than 100 with his interpretive performance — with imitations of monkeys, dinosaurs and other wild creatures — talented young fiddlers from the Black Diamond Fiddle Co. were drawing applause from the crowd outdoors.
Temperatures remained cool but the rain held off as the crowds poured in for the afternoon and evening performances.
“If it gets really warm, sometimes people go do something else,” said Lorrie Campbell, festival volunteer coordinator.
Vendors working near hot stoves didn’t mind the clouds.
“I think people in Port Angeles are used to this kind of weather,” said Kia Armstrong, outreach coordinator for Nash’s Organic Produce.
Armstrong was handing out paper plates of hot vegetables with sides of hot sauce.
About 80 volunteers helped at this year’s Juan de Fuca Festival.
Jerry Freilich, who staffed the volunteer tent, said the festival is consistently the best event of the year in Port Angeles.
“There is a huge number of volunteers rising to the challenge, as always,” Freilich said.
Tickets for the Juan de Fuca Festival cost $17 today and $14 on Monday. Admission for children ages 12 and younger is free.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@ peninsuladailynews.com.
