PORT ANGELES — You have your Dancing Grandmas. You have your impossibly young singer-songwriters.
And today, during the final day of the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts, you have Twisted Roots, the Highlife Band and Broadway and Bordeaux.
The Vern Burton Community Center, 308 E. Fourth St., is the hub from which music, dance and visual art emanate on Memorial Day weekend rain, shine or both.
And as raindrops fell at high noon Sunday, the Dancing Grandmas, unruffled, donned their long skirts, scarves and huge earrings for a free outdoor performance beside the festival’s street fair.
The women, who met one another in the “Use It or Lose It” exercise class at the Port Angeles Senior & Community Center, come to the Juan de Fuca Festival every spring to dance to Egyptian, Moroccan, Turkish, Indian and Gypsy music.
This is the start of the fair and festival season, in which the ensemble appears at events such as Joyce Daze and the Clallam County Fair, said dancer Sandy Maxwell.
Elaine Price, in fact a dancing great-grandmother who makes elaborately beaded costume pieces, added that the group also brings its bling to nursing homes. The color, music and motion all equal pleasure.
The Juan de Fuca Festival, in its 21st year, brings together performers from across and beyond the North American continent — as well as selected local bands.
While the Dancing Grandmas prepared for their show, Seattle rock singer-songwriter Nick Drummond, known for his bands The Senate and Impossible Bird, took the main stage inside the Vern Burton center, delivering a fierce opening number at 12:30 p.m. sharp.
His set was the first of Sunday’s 31 performances.
Tickets, which cover all performances, are $20 for adults and teens, while children 12 and younger get in free. They can be purchased at the festival store in front of the Vern Burton center.
There’s no admission charge at the Juan de Fuca Festival street fair, open from 11 a.m. until about 5 p.m. today.
The fair wraps around the Vern Burton center with art and craft vendors and food trucks ranging from Greek and Thai cuisine to elk burgers and ice cream.
The Juan de Fuca Festival and its nonprofit umbrella, the Juan de Fuca Foundation for the Arts, also present a year-round concert series, which this summer will start with one of the festival’s most popular main stage acts, the Paperboys, at Olympic Cellars winery on Saturday, Aug. 16.
More information about the foundation, the festival and the forthcoming concert season can be found at www.JFFA.org.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.
