PORT ANGELES — Downtown is soon to party like never before. At least the organizers of some new events hope so.
Port Angeles lost an attraction — the July Arts in Action festival on City Pier closed for good last year — but it’s about to gain three in rapid succession: Jammin’ in the Park on Sept. 5, the Big Hurt multisport relay race on Sept. 26 and the inaugural Arts & Draughts, the Sept. 26-27 festival that will make Laurel Street’s downtown blocks pedestrian-only.
The Nor’wester Rotary Club of Port Angeles (which had sponsored Arts in Action) is host of Jammin in the Park, which will bring seven local bands, a car show, food, beer, wine and beach volleyball to the new Waterfront Park at Railroad Avenue and Oak Street.
The free event, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, celebrates the city’s new park and, according to organizer Steve Zenovic, is much more for locals than tourists.
Next the Big Hurt relay, on the last Saturday of September, will have athletes running, mountain- and road-biking and kayaking to Hollywood Beach at the foot of Lincoln Street.
Prime spectating time there will start at 11 a.m. as competitors transition among the race legs, said co-organizer Lorrie Mittman.
The Big Hurt finish line, which she estimated will see action from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m., will have a performance stage, food purveyors and a beer and wine garden, all open to spectators.
“We encourage as many people as possible to hang out at the Hollywood Beach area to cheer the participants on, have some food and beer and listen to music,” Mittman said.
September’s final weekend also brings the debut of Arts & Draughts, a food-beer-wine-art-music convergence — shortly before the 14th annual Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival, downtown’s other food-beer-wine-art-music party.
The Port Angeles Downtown Association initially wanted to have Arts & Draughts, essentially a showcase of local pleasures, around Father’s Day in June, said board member Richard Stephens.
But the association had so much going on last spring, he said, that it opted to hold this first one in the fall.
“We’re going to be promoting Crabfest … we don’t want to steal their thunder,” Stephens added.
“Beer and wine tourism is huge,” he said, but Arts & Draughts is also about bringing locals downtown.
To that end, the festival will bring together purveyors such as Port Angeles’ Barhop, Seattle’s Fremont Brewing, Deschutes of Portland, Ore., and Wind Rose Cellars of Sequim — plus a root beer garden for the under-21 contingent.
Festival-goers can purchase a wristband with sampling tokens for $20 in advance or $25 on site; this will provide admission to the beer and wine garden, to be open from noon to 8 p.m. on festival Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Free artists’ exhibits, art gallery tours and free music are also part of the event, and Downtown Association board member Hayley Croxford already has a list of bands coming from across and beyond the Peninsula: The Whiskey Syndicate, Black Lodge, Joy in Mudville, the Pine Hearts, the Robbie Walden Band, Guardian Elephant and the Great Abide are booked.
“I foresee this becoming something bigger in a handful of years, added Justin Tognoni, another organizer.
“We want to put it on the map as a destination festival and continue the whole Revitalize movement,” he said, referring to the grass-roots group Revitalize Port Angeles, whose projects include beautifying downtown.
In an unusual move, Croxford and crew are encouraging buskers — street musicians — to make the Arts & Draughts scene.
“The more the merrier,” she said, adding that all she asks is for the buskers to stroll away from the main stage to avoid competing with the bands there.
A number of artists have applied to vend and give demonstrations at Arts & Draughts, added downtown association board member Merala Heins. She invites others to download an application at portangelesdowntown.com by the deadline, Sept. 10.
“We’re making good progress on all fronts,” Heins said, adding that the downtown association anticipates around a thousand attendees.
Stephens said that if Arts & Draughts is successful, it will help the association fund the hiring of an executive director, something it has lacked since Barbara Frederick was laid off in December 2014.
The group “does a lot of events to draw people downtown,” he said, but “we wanted to do something larger, something to bring people from far and wide.”
Arts & Draughts is part of an event lineup that Nathan West, Port Angeles’ Community and Economic Development Director, hopes will keep the city lively after Labor Day.
“We are really striving to stretch the season,” he said, adding that joining September’s three downtown festivals is Paint the Peninsula (paintthepeninsula.org), the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center’s art festival Sept. 7-13.
But Scott Nagel, executive director of the Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival, is less than delighted with Arts & Draughts’ timing.
Its closing day is 12 days before Crabfest’s opening, so “visitors will have to choose an event,” he said.
“They are not coming back again to Port Angeles a couple weeks later, [so] in the long run, this would hurt both events,” and reduce the influx of people and dollars, he said.
All of these festivals compete for vendors and sponsors too, Nagel added.
June, he figures, is the ideal time. Downtown has the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts over Memorial Day in May and Independence Day festivities in July, so Arts & Draughts could fit right in between.
By June, “people are so ready to get out of the house,” added Nagel.
At the same time, he wants to see the city put together a full calendar of events — and a promotional effort to go with it.
“The city,” he said, “needs a total marketing plan.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
