PORT ANGELES — The smell of elephant ears and teriyaki is in the air this weekend at the 11th annual Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts, principally sponsored by the PDN.
Hundreds of people of all ages have taken over Port Angeles City Hall and a few other venues around town for the showcase of music performances, art, film and a street fair that liven up Memorial Day weekend.
On Saturday afternoon, a range of duos and smaller bands crooned on the Chamber Stage in City Council chambers, while down the hall on the Ruddell Main Stage in Vern Burton Community Center, jazz bands and ethnic dance troupes wowed the audience.
But the toe-tapping, crowd-pleasing shows weren’t confined to the daises.
Dozens of people gathered near vendors’ booths outside of Vern Burton to watch belly dancers clad in long, flowing skirts and metal spangles perform sultry dances to Middle Eastern music.
Barefoot, the women moved across an array of carpets laid on the pavement, drawing whistles and applause from the crowd.
Earlier, guitarist Bob Boardman of Port Angeles and mandolin maker Chris Burt of Sequim jammed at a picnic table in the grass.
Boardman, who played with Shockable Rhythms on Friday evening’s opening of the festival, will perform with Odd Hack Band in a contra dance today on the KONP Stage.
The Juan de Fuca Festival consistently attracts a variety of musicians, from award-winning San Francisco jazz singer Jenna Mammina to The Lonely H, a young Port Angeles band that took second place in a competition at Seattle’s Experience Music Project earlier this year.
“This is the very best place we ever played,” said Al Watkins, who played mandolin in the Port Angeles band Cherry Hill as the band performed a set of quick and soulful tunes on the intimate Chamber Stage on Saturday.
With the audience so close to the performers, “it makes it much more fun,” he said.
Away from the festival’s main center, short documentaries, comedies and dramas are being shown in the Little Theater at Peninsula College as part of Juan de Fuca’s first annual film festival. Dance groups will also be on the college’s stage today.
Performances are also taking place on the festival’s other stages, at First United Methodist Church, 110 E. Seventh St., and Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, 1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
And numerous art projects and activities for children are set up outside Vern Burton.
The festival continues through Monday. Tickets cost $10 per day.
