SEQUIM –– Carnival rides, parade candy and sawdust will fill the air during the culminating weekend of the 118th Sequim Irrigation Festival today through Sunday.
Sequim’s Irrigation Festival float, “Dancing Through the Valley,” will ride down Washington Avenue in Saturday’s Grand Parade to cap the wild weekend that begins with today’s Crazy Daze Breakfast at 7 a.m. at the SunLand Golf & Country Club, 109 Hilltop Drive.
May is the month dedicated to the 1950s as part of the city’s centennial celebration, and Guy Horton’s flashy float design promises to put the boogie in the bodies of parade-goers with its rotating video monitors playing dance hits of the 1950s.
“The ’50s have got to be flashy,” Horton said. “It’s all about catching that rock ‘n’ roll feeling.”
The float won the Princess Award for Best Animation at the Tacoma Daffodil Parade last month.
Aboard will be Irrigation Festival Queen Angela Bentley and her court of princesses: Lavee Hess, Christie Honore and Danyelle Wilson.
Rough and tumble
A full slate of rough-and-tumble competitions takes over the Blake Avenue lot today and Saturday.
Loggers, lifters and lawnmowers will try to top each other for the Logging Show, Truck and Tractor Pull, and Strongman Showdown.
“It’s nonstop action from the time we blow that first whistle,” said Kevin Kennedy, who co-founded the Logging Show with friend Dave Bekkevar and was named Sequim’s 2012 Citizen of the Year.
The 25th edition of the Logging Show begins today with chain-saw carving from noon to 7 p.m.
Local favorite Haywire dishing out a steady stream of country-fried rock at 8 p.m.
The logging show goes on in earnest at 2 p.m. Saturday, with contestants vying for the tops spots in ax throwing, pole climbing, hand bucking and more, including pole falling.
“There was one guy that fell down about three-quarters of a tree last year and just flopped in the sawdust,” Kennedy said.
“That’s one tough guy.”
Lawnmower races will whip around the field starting at 11 a.m. Saturday, and souped-up trucks from all over the Northwest will begin a tractor pull at noon.
Strong men will compete in the Strongman Showdown from 6 to 8 tonight.
Entrants are Robert Oberst of Hanford, Calif.; Zack McKarley of Ellensburg; Mike Kromer of Kennewick; Ben Crutcher of Vancouver, Wash.; Andrew Palmer of Seattle; and Donald Rhodes of San Diego.
They will toss kegs, tote stones and press unconscionable amounts of weight to see who is the strongest in Sequim.
Fireworks will blow up in the sky over the “Blue Hole” after the sun goes down tonight, likely at about 9:30 p.m.
A century’s tour
New to this year’s festival is a walking history tour of Sequim’s historic buildings.
DJ Bassett, executive director of the Museum & Arts Center, will share the histories of some of the city’s most prominent places alongside longtime locals Judy Reandeau Stipe and Jan Olts.
The two tours begin at the MAC Exhibit Center, 175 W. Cedar St., at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
Admission is $10, and tours are limited to 20 people each. Tickets are sold on a first-come, first-served basis.
The festival began May 3 with a Kids Day and street fair.
For more information, visit www.irrigationfestival.com.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.
