PORT ANGELES — As the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts grows, so goes its economic ripple effect.
Now in its 11th year, the festival is experiencing some of its highest attendance this year, festival officials say.
“”I think (Saturday) was one of our biggest days ever,” said Anna Manildi, the festival’s director said Sunday afternoon.
“There’s no question that they are coming from outside the area,” Manildi said as the breezy wood flute sounds of Huayllipacha echoed in the background.
All the way from Peru’s Andes mountains, Huayllipacha performed Sunday afternoon at the Ruddell Main Stage at Vern Burton Community Center.
But it was a Port Angeles rock band, The Lonely H, that drew the biggest crowd Friday night for a concert, Manildi said.
About 200 teens packed the First United Methodist and Congregational Church’s hall, where the KONP Stage is set up for the four-day festival.
“They had to turn people away,” Manildi said of the show, adding that about 75 fans could not get in because of city fire regulations.
Outside the Peninsula
Besides a strong local showing of loyal Fuca Festival followers, Manildi said more visitors are attending from off the North Olympic Peninsula — despite rising gas prices, typical wet Memorial Day weekend weather and competition from Seattle’s Folklife Festival.
“I know we were full,” Russ Veenema, Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce executive director, said Sunday of lodging occupancy in and around Port Angeles.
“I do know several properties were booked and few were close to being booked (for the weekend).”
Veenema, however, wondered out loud how many more people would attend the Port Angeles music and arts festival with lower gasoline prices.
“We just dug ourselves out of a hole in the past couple years and I was feeling very optimistic, and then the gas prices went up,” Veenema lamented.