PORT TOWNSEND — The Sept. 10-12 Wooden Boat Festival and the Oct. 2-3 Great Port Townsend Bay Kinetic Sculpture Race are canceled, organizers have announced, while the Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival in Port Angeles is still slated for Oct. 8-10.
The Windsong sailboat of Port Townsend departs Friday morning from Point Hudson, where the Wooden Boat Festival would have taken place. The Sept. 10-12 festival is among two Port Townsend festivals canceled due to the changing COVID landscape, organizers said Friday. (Diane Urbani de la Paz/Peninsula Daily News)
The Wooden Boat Festival, known for drawing tens of thousands to Point Hudson and the surrounding waters, had faced numerous pullouts by boat owners, vendors and presenters over the past week, said Jake Beattie, Northwest Maritime Center executive director.
“The reasons were all over the map,” he said in an interview Friday.
“Primarily, it was not feeling safe” at a festival of such scale.
A week earlier, the maritime festival had established a policy requiring all participants to show proof of full COVID vaccination or a negative test within the preceding 72 hours.
This decision was met with widespread positive feedback from the community and support from the Jefferson County Health Department, Beattie noted.
“We were confident that we could run a festival in accordance with these safety protocols. But in the end we weren’t certain that the festival experience would be able to live up to the spirit of celebration and community that has been its hallmark,” Beattie wrote in a letter emailed to participants.
“This is a rapidly shifting world and cancelling is the only responsible thing.”
The maritime center, the nonprofit organization that hosts the festival, will refund all ticket purchases and entry fees. Information will be posted at woodenboat.org.
The festival’s Blazer Party and Lifetime Achievement Awards will be rescheduled for some time in the future, Beattie’s letter added.
Kinetic Skulpture Race
The 38th annual Kinetic Sculpture Race, another outdoor event, was scrubbed for the second consecutive year; board member Marilyn Kurka announced this shortly before the Wooden Boat Festival cancellation was made public.
“We thought it was the responsible thing to do,” she told the Peninsula Daily News, adding the nine-member board was unanimous on the move.
“We made our decision now instead of waiting. This way people can cancel travel plans.”
With the race on city streets and public spaces across Port Townsend, Kurka said, there would be no way to control entry or require vaccination.
CrabFest
Scott Nagel, executive director of the 20th Crab & Seafood Festival, said he and his crew have no plans to cancel their event, which takes place on the Port Angeles City Pier, in the nearby Gateway Pavilion and in the Red Lion Hotel parking lot.
“We are adjusting how we do a few things,” Nagel said.
Changes to the Crabfest routine will be announced soon, he predicted, while adding that the booths are set up outdoors on the pier, 50 percent fewer seats will be set up under the tent, and the flaps will be up for air circulation.
“Obviously [plans] could change in the future, but whatever [Health Officer] Dr. Allison Berry says, we will do. I have a lot of confidence in her leadership.”
Berry, at the same time, said Friday that she will consider ordering restaurants to require proof of full vaccination from their customers, in an effort to mitigate the rapid spread of COVID-19.
More than a dozen restaurants partake in the Crab & Seafood Festival. There’s no way to secure the outdoor sites, Nagel said. So if Berry issues a mandate for proof-of-immunization upon entry, “we would have to completely cancel,” he said.
There are nearly seven weeks yet to go, though, so for Nagel and crew, “Crabfest is definitely on.”
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Jefferson County senior reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com.
