PORT ANGELES — The final day of the third annual Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival proved as popular as the first, with scores of visitors on Sunday roaming the many booths and displays and enjoying a vast array of food and drink.
“It was awesome. It was incredible beyond our wildest dreams,” said Scott Nagel, executive producer of the event.
Nagel said early estimates show about 9,000 people attended at least one featured festival event.
The fest, centered around Port Angeles City Pier and Red Lion Hotel, featured typical festival-style vendor booths selling everything from tie-dyed T-shirts to handcrafted jewelry, and from watercolor paintings to delicacies produced by Sequim-area lavender growers.
It also offered musical entertainment by Port Angeles-based quintet Tongue and Groove, fiddler Ivonne Hernandez and a host of others.
But few visitors passed on the chance to sample the festival’s showcase item — Dungeness crab dishes prepared by several area restaurateurs in an 8,000-square-foot tent set up in the parking lot of the Red Lion Hotel.
In past years, the festival was held at two locations: a crab derby in Port Angeles and food booths at John Wayne Marina near Sequim.
Consolidating booths and activities made sense, Nagel said.
“It was just too difficult to find enough parking at the marina,” he said.
