Arts, dance and blackberry celebration scheduled

Published 1:30 am Friday, July 31, 2026

This weekend, blackberries, Butoh and Arts in Action top the list of Peninsula activities.

• The 2026 Salish Sea International Butoh Festival will finish up this weekend with Mainstage performances at 8 p.m. today, Saturday and Sunday at the American Legion’s Marvin G. Shields Memorial Post 26, 209 Monroe St., Port Townsend.

Tickets for each Mainstage performance are $25 per person at www.salishsea butohfestival.com.

The annual festival, currently in its sixth year, celebrates Butoh, an avant-garde form of dance-theater that originated in Japan after WWII. The genre grows from themes that include dreams, ghosts, androgyny, nature, solitude and the natural cycles of life and death.

Friday’s Mainstage performance will feature Emiko Agatsuma; Ivan-Daniel Espinosa and Company; and Yumiko Yoshioka.

Saturday’s Mainstage performance will feature Yamamoto Mōe and Shirasaka Kei, of Kanazawa Butoh-Kan, and Kasai Akira, of Tenshi-Kan.

Sunday’s Mainstage performance will feature Joan Laage, of Kogut Butoh; Mitsutake Kasai, the son of Akira Kasai; and Kota Yamazaki and Mina Nishimura.

• The Juan de Fuca Foundation for the Arts will host Arts in Action from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday in downtown Port Angeles.

As in previous years, the festival will block off Laurel Street, between First and Front streets, for live music, artists creating work onsite and youth and family activities. The free event will also include food vendors and an artisan market.

The festival will kick off at 6 p.m. Friday with a bonus show by Sound Advice in the Concerts on the Pier series at City Pier, 315 N. Lincoln St., Port Angeles.

On Saturday, the Mainstage on Laurel Street will see performances by Gristle at 11 a.m.; Rewind at 12:30 p.m.; The Navy Band Northwest at 2:15 p.m.; Black Diamond Zeppelin at 4 p.m.; and Snapshot at 6 p.m.

Sunday’s Mainstage lineup includes Back Pockett at 11:30 a.m.; Mort Crim All Stars at 1:30 p.m.; and Blizzard at 3:30 p.m.

For more information, visit www.jffa.org/arts-in-action.

• The 43rd Joyce Daze Wild Blackberry Festival is set for Saturday at a variety of locations in downtown Joyce.

Festivities will kick off with breakfast sandwiches for sale from 7 a.m. to 1o a.m. from the Crescent Bay Lions Club food trailer and will finish after the 2:30 p.m. button drawing.

This year’s festivities will include a salmon bake hosted by the Lions Club from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Mini-Mall and the return of the beard contest, contestants can sign up from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m at the Joyce Depot Museum.

Other featured events include a blackberry pie contest, blackberry pie sales, vendor booths, kids activities, live music, the Grand Parade down state Highway 112 at 1 p.m. and the ever-popular Extreme Slug Racing at 2 p.m. at the Family Kitchen Beer Garden.

Organizers anticipate more than 200 freshly baked pies, made with local wild blackberries, to be available for sale. Slices of pie, as well as whole pies, will be available for purchase from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., while supplies last.

Proceeds from pies sales benefit scholarships, community projects and equipment for the Joyce Fire Department.

Pie-makers can drop off pies for the Wild Blackberry Pie Contest between 9 a.m. and 10:55 a.m. at the tent next to the museum.

The youth category is for bakers ages 10-17.

For more information, email joinus@joycedaze.org or visit www.joycedaze.org.

Local bands will be featured throughout the day starting at 10 a.m. in front of the Joyce Museum.

• Brigitte Schlemmer will emcee Moon Fest 2026 today and Saturday at Twana Springs, 260 Munn Road, Quilcene.

Tickets for the annual music festival are $55 for Friday, $80 for Saturday or $125 for both days at www.moon-fest.com. Gates will open at 10 a.m. Friday with food, beverage and vendors available both days of the festival. The festival kicks off at 5 p.m. Friday with Geoffrey Castle followed by Scott Pemberton O Theory at 7 p.m. and Creedence Revelation at 9 p.m.

Saturday’s lineup will start at 12:30 p.m. with Abracadabra Trip, Mars Garden at 2 p.m., Roger Fisher at 3:30 p.m., Jacked Up Jill at 4:30 p.m., No Quarter at 6:30 p.m., Shula Azar at 9 p.m. and Amigos at 9:30 p.m.

The festival will also include a presentation on micro-dosing for anxiety, pain and end-of-life from Jennifer Rotermund.

Rotermund is the micro-dosing facilitator for the Port Townsend Psychedelic Society. For more information, email classicmoonfest@gmail.com.

• Anne Pfeiffer will discuss how she selected works for the exhibit “Northwest Expression” at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Jeanette Best Gallery, 701 Water St., Port Townsend.

Pfeiffer, a local artist and educator, selected 49 creations ranging from sculpture to photography from hundreds of pieces submitted by artists from across Washington and Oregon.

Pfeiffer has already awarded the $250 Juror’s Choice prize to “Northwest Island,” a painting by Marian Morris of Sequim, but voting is open through Aug. 10 for the People’s Choice prize.

“Northwest Expression” will remain on display from noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays until Aug. 10.

• “Fiber Unbound,” an textile art exhibit by Peninsula Fiber Artists, will be on display from noon to 5 p.m. today, Saturday and Sunday at Wilderbee Farm’s Mead Werks, 223 Cook Ave. Ext., Port Townsend.

The exhibit, which will be on display through Nov. 1, includes 37 pieces of fiber art featuring vibrant colors, detailed beading, embroidery, applique, mixed-media and 3-D sculptures.

Contributing artists include Angela Dideum, Sue Gale, Caryl Fallert-Gentry, Debra E. Olson, Ellen Thomas, Erika Wurm, Larkin Jean Van Horn, Lora Armstrong, Linda Carlson, Merrie Jo Schroeder, Daera Leslie Dobbs.

The artists, all members of Peninsula Fiber Artists, hail from Port Angeles, Port Hadlock, Port Townsend, Poulsbo and Sequim.

Most of the art is available for purchase at prices ranging from $40 to $3,800.

For more information, call Wilderbee Farm at 360-379-2434or visit www.sda-np.com.

• The First Saturday Art Walk is set from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, mostly in Port Townsend’s downtown area.

Some of the attractions this month include:

— Gallery-9, 1012 Water St., will showcase oil paintings and watercolors by Ann Arscott alongside silver jewelry created by Roberto Ribiero during art walk.

Arscott will exhibit a collection of Asian-inspired paintings, including Sumi-E painting, an art form that uses black ink washes. The style strives to express the essence of forms rather than their realistic appearance.

She also works in oils, pastels, water colors, ink and pencil on canvas, silk and various types of paper.

Ribiero learned the basics of silversmithing from a friend in Brazil, where he was born and raised, and he has been making jewelry for nearly 30 years.

Working with recycled silver casting grain, Ribiero makes every clasp, hoop, post and bezel by hand for each piece of his jewelry.

He will showcase a selection of pieces that feature periodot, the birthstone for August.

Ribiero’s jewelry and Arscott’s painting will be on exhibit from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays during August at Gallery-9.

For more information, visit www.gallery-9.com.

— The Port Townsend Gallery, 715 Water St., will host a reception for Rebekah Cadorette and Susan Hazard from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Cadorette, a Port Townsend fiber artist known for her handwoven garments and linens, will exhibit the Japanese folk art of temari during Saturday’s Art Walk and throughout the month.

Temari began in Japan as children’s toys but has evolved into highly valued art.

They are constructed by wadding up pieces of cloth into a ball, then wrapped with strips of fabric.

Over time, the exterior stitching became more detailed and the balls began to display elaborate embroidery.

Adhering to tradition, Cadorette and uses loom leftovers in her temari which are made from 95 percent repurposed materials.

Hazard works in oils and in acrylics often mixed with gold, silver and copper leaf foils.

Her career in designing and drafting for architects and landscape architects influences the inner structure of her work.

Hazard creates images that show and reflect mystical environments through complementary color juxtapositions and changing light, the metal foils reflect light to add an additional dimension to the surface of the paintings.

She has a bachelor of arts degree from the University of California-Santa Barbara.

The art of Cadorette and Hazard will be on exhibit from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily throughout August.

For more information, call 360-379-8110 or visit www.porttownsendgallery.com.

— The Jeanette Best Gallery, 701 Water St., will be showing “Northwest Expressions” from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The exhibit, which features 50 pieces from 35 artists, will be on display through Aug. 10 and visitors are invited to vote for the People’s Choice Award.

The gallery is open from noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays.

• Ghostlight Productions will present its production of “Titanic: The Musical” with shows at 7 p.m. tonight and Saturday and matinee performances at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in the auditorium at Port Angeles High School, 304 Park Ave., Port Angeles.

Tickets are $15 per person for opening night on Friday and $16 to $24 per person for the remaining performances and are available at www.ghostlightwa.org.

“Titanic” is based on the story of RMS Titanic which sank on April 15, 1912, the musical is not related to the 1997 film of the same name.

Ghostlight’s production is under the direction of Mark Lorentzen, with music direction by John Lorentzen and choreography by Anna Pederson.

The principal cast includes Daniel Morrison as Captain Edward Smith, Caleb Crawford as J. Bruce Ismay, Ethan Hoch as 1st Officer William Murdoch, Michael Herring as 2nd Officer Charles Lightoller, Jeremy Pederson as Thomas Andrews, Trent Pomeroy as Isidor Strauss, Angela Poynter as Ida Strauss, Sean McDaniel as Jim Farrell, Kydn Meyer as Kate McGowan, Gabrielle Simonson as Kate Mullins, Kyla Ford as Kate Murphy, Hayden Pomeroy as Charles Clarke, Sunshine Peterson as Caroline, Joseph Burkett as Edgar Beane, Anna Pederson as Alice Beane, Liam Getzin as Frederick Fleet, Boden Cowgill as Harold Bride, Mark Lorentzen as Frederick Barrett and Aason Judd as both Robert Hitches and Herbert Pitman.

Supporting cast members include Elliot Warren as a bellboy, Danielle Lorentzen as Madeline Astor, Cecie Gonzalez McClelland as Mistress Guggenheim, Brooklyn McKnight as Marion Thayer, Dakota Casinelli as Charlotte Cardoza and Darian Rentas as Mrs. Widener as well as ensemble players Erica Kolasch, Marni Ann Whitehead, Becca VanDyken and Thomas Jones.

The musical accompaniment will be provided by an orchestra including violinists Samantha Rodahl and Selby Jelle, violists Violet Knobel and Juliana Getzin, cellists Evan Cobb and Braeden Baker, bassist Clint Thomas and keyboards by John Allman and John Lorentzen, who will also conduct the orchestra.

• Ash Devine will present “Grateful for Growers” at 6 p.m. Sunday at Quimper Grange, 1219 Corona St. Port Townsend.

The concert is free although donations to protect Port Townsend’s growing spaces will be accepted.

Devine, a songwriter who was born and raised in the Appalachian region of southwestern Virginia, plays ukulele and guitar.

She lived in Asheville, N.C., for 17 years where she learned Appalachian folk music traditions.

Attendees are encouraged to bring their instruments and join in an old-time Appalachian-style folk jam.

• The Hot Club of PT will perform at noon Sunday for Free Jazz Sunday in the Sunset Lounge at Field Arts and Events Hall, 201 W. Front St., Port Angeles.

The free performance will feature Django Reinhardt-style jazz, harmony vocals, French waltzes and Brazilian choro.

• Cathy Balliu will present “Women’s Work in 1776” at 10 a.m. Saturday during a meeting of the North Olympic Shuttle and Spindle Guild at the Olympic Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 1033 N. Barr Road, Port Angeles.

The public is welcome to attend the free meeting.

Balliu will be discussing the guild’s participation in the Clallam County Fair.

For more information, email n.o.shuttleand spindleguild@gmail.com or visit www.nossg.org.

• Pam Pace, Diane Young and Stephany Neuschaefer will present “A Cook’s Garden: Growing Culinary Herbs, Aromatics and Specialty Vegetables” at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Woodcock Demonstration Garden, 2711 Woodcock Road, Sequim.

The free workshop is part of the Clallam County Master Gardeners’ Digging Deeper gardening series.

The master gardeners will discuss herbs, aromatics and specialty vegetables that grow well in this area along with tips on growing, harvesting, cooking and preserving them.

The presentation will include time to tour the Woodcock herb garden and to make herb bundles and sachets to take home.

For more information, call 360-565-2679 or visit https://extension.wsu.edu/clallam.

• Dungeness Bonsai Society and the Clallam County Master Gardeners and will present “Bonsai Pop-Up: An Exhibition In The Courtyard” from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday in the courtyard at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, 1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd., Port Angeles.

Admission is free, although donations will be welcomed.

Master gardeners and members of the bonsai society will showcase their trees and answer questions about the care and shaping of bonsai.

The exhibit is in conjunction with the arts center’s “Kinship: A Collaboration With Nature” exhibit that will be on display through Sept. 13.

For more information, visit www.pafac.org.

• The Summer Reading Program will host “Tea Social: Organic Conversations” at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Port Angeles Main Library, 2210 S. Peabody St., Port Angeles.

Clallam County Master Gardeners will be on hand to answer questions about plant problems and sustainable gardening.

A selection of teas will be available to stimulate conversation.

For more information, call the library at 360-417-8500, email discover@nols.org or visit www.nols.org/srp.