PORT ANGELES — For Anna Manildi, only 12 months remain before the next Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts.
“Event planning is just an endless maze of details,” the festival’s executive director said Monday as this year’s celebration of music, dance, art and food wound down.
“It’s a year-round effort.”
No sooner than volunteers strike the stages and fold the tents from this year’s festival, Manildi and her assistant must balance the books, pay performers for their CD sales, and update databases for entertainers and vendors.
Manildi said the festival’s 13th edition this year attracted more participants than the 2005 record of an estimated 15,000 visitors.
“We’re a little bit higher than we were last year,” she said, “thanks to an exceptionally good Friday.”
Weather a factor
Saturday and Sunday’s brooding low clouds may have slackened attendance a bit, but “today it looks like it’s picked up,” she said Monday.
The festival’s budget is between $75,000 and $100,000, Manildi said.
If festival-goers love the Memorial Day weekend entertainment extravaganza, its 500 performers in more than 60 groups may love it even more, she said.
For one thing, Juan de Fuca pays many performers.
