SEQUIM — The 107th edition of the Sequim Irrigation Festival, the state’s oldest continuing festival, begins Friday with bonsai, flowers, art, music and a kids’ parade.
The festival was started May 1, 1896, when residents of the valley and surrounding communities came together to witness the opening of the first irrigation line near what now is the intersection of Old Olympic Highway and Sequim-Dungeness Way.
Festival chairwoman Pat McCauley says the Irrigation Festival helps the Sequim-Dungeness Valley and North Olympic Peninsula preserve the rural farming character.
“We laugh about it and we think it’s hokie, but it gives our town its own flavor and its own identification,” McCauley said.
The annual parade — this year on May 11 — remains the highlight of the festival and is the major draw attracting as many as 20,000 people.
“People inherit their seats (on the parade route),” McCauley said. “Where else would you find people setting up their places the night before the parade?”
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