PORT ANGELES — Get ready for a feast.
The 18th annual Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival will be Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Port Angeles City Pier and Red Lion Hotel at Lincoln Street and Railroad Avenue.
More than eight tons of Dungeness crab pulled from local waters will be delivered to the plates of festival-goers.
“The only way to get it fresher is to go crabbing yourself,” said Scott Nagel, executive director of the festival, in a press release.
Whole Dungeness crab dinners will be served in the 12,000-square-foot Crab Central tent in the Red Lion parking lot, the release said. The crab will be served with fresh corn and cole slaw.
“Our crabs average two pounds so we make sure you get plenty of crab (along with your bib),” Nagel said.
Tickets for the full crab meal are $30 and can be purchased in advance at landing.crabfestival.org.
Inside Crab Central will be other restaurant booths, adult beverages and live music.
On the pier— where food and goods booths will be set up — visitors can buy cooked and cleaned Dungeness crab to go.
The festival will offer a total of 19 food booths this year, Nagel said.
It also will offer a variety of activities other than eating.
“The Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival celebrates not only the food, aquaculture, agriculture and maritime traditions of Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula, but also Native American culture, art, music, and children’s activities in one spectacular three-day celebration,” Nagel said.
The festival will offer two live music stages, two live oyster bars, local beer and wine, a Chef Demonstration Stage featuring local and regional culinary talent, and the Grab-a-Crab Crab Derby.
Saturday activities will include a Welcoming Ceremony with the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, a U.S. Coast Guard air and sea rescue demonstration, an Olympic Peninsula Rowing Association demonstration and a Peninsula College 5K Fun Run.
A non-denominational “Crab Revival” and the Captain Joseph House Foundation Chowder Cook-Off will take place on Sunday.
Presenting sponsors include Black Ball Ferry Line, Kitsap Bank, Peninsula Daily News, Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce and Red Lion Hotel Port Angeles.
“More than 40 sponsors and community organization make the festival happen every year,” Nagel said.
For more information, see landing.crabfestival.org, email info@crabfestival.org or call 360-452-6300.
A crab awaits its fate as a tasty meal during last year’s Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival in Port Angeles. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
