Things to do / Travel Guide
January
Starting in mid-January and lasting until the end of the month, the Seattle International Boat show is held every year in Seattle's Seahawks Exhibition Center. This is one of the largest boat shows in North America and it usually showcases more than 1,500 boats of every size, shape, and color.
February
The Northwest Flower and Garden Show, an event specializing in floral displays, garden displays, and landscaping showcases, takes place in Seattle every year during the third week of February.
April
The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival takes place in Skagit Valley about 50 miles northeast of Seattle, and is a month-long festival of tulips and the local art scene. The event includes craft fairs and barbecues and is free to attend.
May
In Port Orchard, located in Kitsap County right in the middle of the Puget Sound, there is the Seagull-Calling Festival, an annual contest held at the area's waterfront on the first Saturday of May. This event is very popular with the locals who come out in droves to watch the seagulls. Kids, in particular, love to come out and eat “Splat,” a greenish-brown candy that is made specifically for this event and meant to resemble the fecal matter of seagulls. Apparently it's very tasty and the kids just love it!
Over the Memorial Day weekend in Seattle, there is the Northwest Folklife Festival, a free event that features folk dancing workshops, exhibits, and performances. Some of these focus on particular kinds of folk dancing, such as traditional Thai folk dancing, sub-Saharan African traditional folk dancing, or Mexican folk dancing.
In the harbor town of Westport, located on the Pacific coastline just about 130 miles southwest of Seattle, the “Blessing of the Fleet” is an event that features a boat parade of all the local fishing vessels as well as a Coast Guard rescue demonstration. The event takes place sometime in late May each year.
June
Starting in June and lasting through August, the Summer Nights at the Pier concert series takes place on the Seattle Waterfront. Musical offerings consist of everything from Billy Idol to the Roots to the Flaming Lips, all of whom have at one time or another played at the event. While ticket prices vary from year to year depending on who is playing, know that you can hear the music loud and clear from a boat out on the water near the Waterfront.
July
The Seafari takes place every July in Seattle. This waterfront festival features a variety of events ranging from air shows to torchlight parades to hydroplane races. While the exact dates for this event vary slightly from year to year, it always takes place in July.
The prominent “Bite of Seattle,” a two-day food festival that features foods from over 60 of Seattle's finest restaurants takes place in mid-July each year. While the food isn't free, the variety of tastes is superb, and the offerings are delectably delicious.
The Washington Trails Association sponsors “Trailfest,” a five-day recreational event that takes place each July, at a new location every year, which includes hiking, wall climbing, and boating.
Since 1947, the Bellevue Arts and Crafts Fair has been held in Bellevue at the end of July. This event is usually held for three days over a long weekend and features exhibits and displays by local craftsmen and artisans and is very popular with locals.
August
The Evergreen State Fair runs for 10 days and includes an arts and crafts fair, as well as country, folk, classical, light rock, and pop music concerts featuring local musicians. There are also plenty of carnival rides that are fun for the whole family! The Evergreen State Fair is held every August in Monroe, in Snohomish County.
September
During the Labor Day weekend in the Seattle Center there is “Bumbershoot,” a film and music festival. Top-notch artists such as Kanye West and other hip-hop stars have come to perform at the festival in the past, as well as the Kabuki Theater group from Japan and the Ethiopian Circus.
The town of Puyallup, just south of Federal Way, hosts the Puyallup Fair in early September. This event is a state fair that comes complete with a rodeo, art exhibits, crafts fair, live music, races, and rides that are fun for the whole family.
October
The Kinetic Skulpture race takes place in Port Townsend in the beginning of October each year to celebrate “garage engineering” and the wonders of kinetic sculpture and functional works of art. At this event, participants create a functional sculpture and then race down Main Street. Some of the sculptures are simple and ordinary while others are exotic and elaborate. The event attracts participants from near and far, as Port Townsend hosts one of the oldest kinetic sculpture races in the world.
Every year in October in the town of Leavenworth there is a massive celebration highlighting the German-themed Oktoberfest. Billed as being “the next best thing to being in Munich,” the Leavenworth Oktoberfest is held in the middle of the month and is noted for great German food, live German music, a German arts and crafts fair, and, of course, lots and lots of German-style beer.
November
Every year, on the weekend immediately after Thanksgiving in Leavenworth (about 120 miles east of Seattle), there is Christkindlmarkt, an event that showcases the German heritage of the local area with an open-air market and food stalls offering German cuisine, like bratwurst and wiener schnitzel.
December
Leavenworth also hosts an annual Christmas Lighting Festival each December, whereby the snow-capped Cascade Mountains serve as a magnificent backdrop for the brightly-decorated Bavarian-style town of Germanic ancestry. Every Friday during the month of December, the village remains “dark” until a local luminary (sometimes the mayor and/or Santa Claus) comes along and, with the press of just one button, illuminates the entire village!
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