PORT TOWNSEND — The Uptown Street Fair, started 12 years ago to celebrate Aldrich’s grocery’s centennial, will be markedly different Saturday, nearly two weeks after the store burned to the ground.
The loss “only makes it more important to bring our community together,” Port Townsend Main Street President Carol McGough said.
Festivities, with the theme “The Greatest Show on Earth,” will begin at 10 a.m. at the intersection of Lawrence and Tyler streets.
Old favorites of the fair will be back this year: the Joe Kuhn Community Clam Bake, Uptown parade, sidewalk art and a community photo.
Other businesses in the district have stepped up to fill the culinary void created since Aldrich’s isn’t able to serve food this year.
Sweet Laurette’s and Cyndee’s Cafe, Lanza’s, Uptown Pub and the Clam Bake will have extra food to make up for the loss.
Aldrich’s owners David Hamilton and Jonathan Ryweck will sell store T-shirts as a fund raiser.
This year’s Clam Bake continues the tradition started by community pioneer and one-time mayor Joe Kuhn in 1867.