PORT TOWNSEND — While tourist events have earned Port Townsend a widespread reputation as an arts and culture center, the 25th annual Uptown Street Fair helps to remind residents of the community qualities that make Port Townsend so special.
“It’s a fantastic local event. Everyone comes out and supports each other,” said Uptown Pub owner Christel Hildebrandt of the festival set Saturday.
“Everyone comes out and plays and drinks. Kids have fun with the crafts and the food and the family.”
Saturday’s fair will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Lawrence and Tyler streets.
Past attendance numbers are vague, but Mari Mullen, Port Townsend Main Street executive director, estimated that at least 1,000 people show up between Aldrich’s Market at 940 Lawrence St. and the Port Townsend Fire Station at 1310 Lawrence St. for the festival.
“This has uptown personality,” Mullen said.
Adds Potpourri Northwest Interiors owner Jeanne Moore:
“It’s sweet and unpretentious.”
Grandly Local Parade
The Grandly Local Parade at 2 p.m. is the main event.
Moore said all floats are welcome, so long as they don’t have political or religious messages.
Each parade entry will get a trophy, many of which have been designed and built by Moore.
Trophies aren’t competitive; once awarded by category, this year, the “winners” will be allowed to select their own trophy, Moore said.
Entry forms are available at Potpourri at 1004 Lawrence St. or beginning at 1:30 p.m. the day of the parade, which gathers at the fire station on Lawrence Street.
Entries “do just show up, but we’d love it if people told us they were coming,” Mullen said.
With the expected unpredictability, the Kinetic Sculpture Race, the Wearable Art Show, Main Street and the Boiler Room have committed so far.
Arts & Crafts Fair
The Port Townsend Arts Guild will host the 25th annual Uptown Arts & Crafts Fair all day on Tyler Street at Lawrence across from the Port Townsend Community Center.
Some of the juried work will include clothing, paintings, glass sculptural art, pottery, leather belts and bags, cedar boxes, soaps, lampworked beads, silver jewelry, original baby clothes, a henna booth, handsewn leather and canvas bags, handpainted clothing, yard art, handwoven rugs and felted woolen items.
Live music is planned all day as well as children’s art activities.
The Community Bowl Project, belly dancing and a visit to the Port Townsend Farmers Market also are included.
The Uptown Pub is hosting an outdoor beer garden.
This year’s Uptown Street Fair poster features original art by uptown artist Michael Hale. It will be printed by the Printery.
Although not part of the Uptown Street Fair, the Port Townsend Kiwanis’ 26th annual Classic Car Show will be nearby at Memorial Field from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Main Street has always had a peripheral involvement in the parade but has become more active in the past few years, soliciting business sponsors and helping to plan the schedule.
This year’s sponsors are the city of Port Townsend, Main Street, Carlson Chiropractic, Port Townsend Arts Guild, Pane D’Amore bakery, The Uptown Pub, Business Guides, the Printery, Aldrich’s Market, Wallyworks, Central Welding, Potpourri, Petals Flowers and Clark Sturdivant, DDS.
The sponsorships make the event sustainable, Mullen said.
“I like it that nothing is mandatory,” Moore said of the celebration.
“No one is telling you that you have to do anything.”
For more details, go to www.ptmainstreet.org or call 360-385-7911.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
