SEQUIM — Amazing tests of strength at the Strongman Competition, feats of skill at the 23rd annual Logging Show and a Grand Parade with 120 floats, including the reigning queen and princesses — it’s going to be quite a weekend in Sequim.
Those are only some of the events planned today and Saturday during the final weekend of the 116th Sequim Irrigation Festival, which began May 6.
The theme of the festival evokes a birthday — “One Hundred and Sweet Sixteen” — and events will be family-oriented, said Deon Kapetan, chairwoman of the festival.
The weekend will start off with a Crazy Daze Breakfast at 7 a.m. at SunLand Golf & Country Club, 109 Hilltop Drive. The cost is $10 for adults and $8 for children 12 and younger.
Wacky attire will be donned both at the breakfast and in businesses downtown through the day in honor of D.R. “Crazy” Callen, one of the founders of the Sequim Irrigation Festival, which is the longest continuously running festival on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Logging show
The two-day logging show and truck and tractor pull will begin at 5 p.m. today in the Blake Avenue lot near Carrie Blake Park.
Although most of the logging show will be Saturday, the chain saw carvers start this afternoon. The Tractor Pull and Mud Buggies follow tonight, with the logging show closing at 10 p.m.
A strongman showdown also is tonight in the Blake Avenue lot, with the strongest from throughout the world competing in the axle lift, arm-over-arm truck pull, log press, tire flip, stone stack, dead lift and car lift between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Fireworks will light up the sky from the Blake Avenue lot at about 9:30 p.m.
New this year will be Dungeness River Run on Saturday.
Registration for the 5K run will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Dungeness Audubon River Center at Railroad Bridge Park, 2151 W. Hendrickson Road.
The run will begin at 9:10 a.m. Runners will travel the Olympic Discovery Trail to Fifth Avenue and then return to the river center.
Registration is $10 for individuals and $25 for families.
“This is a new event for us,” Kapetan said.
“It will be starting a little bit earlier — actually the whole day starts a little bit earlier because of that.”
Saturday’s logging show, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., will be packed with events: ax throwing, pole falling, hot saws and power saws, hand bucking and “special tree acts” as well as lawn mower races and tractor pulls.
The tractor pull and lawn mower races begin at about 11 a.m., with the logging show at 2 p.m.
The logging show also will feature and antique saw exhibit and a petting zoo, as well as food and crafts booths.
Logging show events are free, but donations are appreciated.
Downtown parades
At 10:15 a.m., parade action will begin to heat up in downtown Sequim with the Kids Parade on Washington Street from Second Avenue to Fourth Avenue.
Participants — children 12 and younger — will start lining up at 9:45 a.m. on Second Avenue between Cedar and Washington Streets.
Awards will be given out for best festival theme, best cartoon or storybook character and best dressed pet.
At about 10:45 a.m., the Car Cruzz will roll through downtown to the Walmart parking lot at 1110 W. Washington St., where a car show will open at noon and continue until 5 p.m.
The show will feature cars from as early as 1927 to the present day.
The highlight of the weekend will be the Grand Parade at noon, Kapetan said.
The parade will follow Washington Street from Dunlap Avenue to Seventh Street.
“We are fine tuning everything, and it will be just an amazing year,” she said.
One float couldn’t find a trailer and the Sequim-Dungeness Chamber of Commerce helped find one so the float could participate in the event.
“I am ecstatic over the floats that will be here this year,” Kapetan said.
The parade annually draws floats and marching bands from throughout the state.
It will include the 2011 Grand Marshal Emily Westcott, grand pioneers Ronald Priest and Jean Hendrickson Gockerell and honorary pioneers Morris Quinn and Annalee Hermann as well as the Irrigation Festival royalty — Queen Taylor Willis, and Princesses Stephanie Laurie, Abigail Vidals and Marissa Haner — and junior royalty Miles Van Sant and Emily Silva from Greywolf Elementary, and Trenton Phipps and Kyah Fukunaga from Helen Haller Elementary.
Carnival
The carnival this year is family-friendly, Kapetan said, with rides that are fit for anyone.
“It will be more of the old-school rides — the carrousels and ferris wheels,” she said.
The carnival is at Sequim High School, 601 N. Sequim Ave. Hours are from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. today, from noon to 11 p.m. Saturday and from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.
Wristbands for the rides are $25.
Also open this weekend is the Sequim Arts 35th Annual Fine Arts Exhibit a juried show at the Museum and Arts Center in the Sequim Dungeness Valley, 175 W. Cedar St. Hours at the museum ate 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today through Sunday.
Here is the festival schedule:
Today
■ 7 a.m. — Crazy Daze Breakfast, Sunland Golf and Country Club, 109 Hilltop Drive.
■ 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. — Logging show and Truck and Tractor Pull, Blake Avenue lot.
■ 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. — Strongman Competition, Blake Avenue lot.
■ 9:30 p.m. — Fireworks.
Saturday
■ 9:10 a.m. — Dungeness River Run, Dungeness Audubon River Center at Railroad Bridge Park, 2151 West Hendrickson Road. Registration is at 8:30 a.m.
■ 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. — Logging show and Truck and Tractor Pull, Blake Avenue lot.
■ 10:15 a.m. — Kids Parade in downtown Sequim.
■ 10:45 a.m. — Car Cruzz to a Car Show ‘n’ Shine in the Walmart parking lot, 1110 W. Washington St.
■ Noon — Grand Parade — Washington Street from Dunlap Avenue to Seventh St.
For more information about the Sequim Irrigation Festival, visit www.irrigationfestival.com.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
