SEQUIM — The first weekend of the 120th edition of the Sequim Irrigation Festival will be crazy.
It’s dubbed Crazy Cullen Weekend, in honor of D.R. Cullen, who designed and developed the irrigation ditches that brought water to the once-dry prairies of Sequim and allowed farmers to thrive.
“Because the concept was so far out, he was dubbed Crazy Cal,” the Sequim festival organizers say on the event website at www.irrigationfestival.com.
“We are excited,” Deon Kapetan, director of the 2015 Sequim Irrigation Festival, said Wednesday.
“It is shaping up pretty well.”
Food and entertainment
There will be plenty of entertainment, food and drinks, Kapetan said, inviting the community to come out and participate.
“It is the longest continuing festival in Washington state, and it is our local event,” she said.
It is important to celebrate the introduction of irrigation into the Sequim-Dungeness Valley, Kapetan said.
“The historical part of it, I think, is really important. There is so much history that goes into just this event alone, and it makes it a lot of fun,” she said.
The theme for the 2015 festival is “120 Fun a Plenty.”
Today and Saturday are Crazy Daze, when Sequim businesses downtown dress crazy or decorate their windows and stores in a crazy manner.
It all begins with today’s 7 a.m. Crazy Daze Breakfast at SunLand Golf & Country Club, 109 Hilltop Drive, when many come in costume.
The best team spirit will be rewarded with the Crazy Cullen Award. Awards also will be given for skits and costumes.
Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for children. They are available at Sound Community Bank, Colors of Sequim, Cherry Creek Mortgage and the Chamber of Commerce/Visitor Center.
Later in the evening, Crazy Daze will continue with an added attraction to the First Friday Art Walk from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The free self-guided tour of Sequim art galleries, artists’ studios and alternative art venues will include the Sequim Arts Juried Art Show reception at the Museum & Arts Center, 175 W. Cedar St.
There, Sequim Arts, an organization of more than 150 North Olympic Peninsula artists, will sponsor its 39th annual Fine Arts Exhibit.
More than $1,500 in cash and merchandise prizes will be awarded.
The show will remain on display through May 30.
That night, those who missed Thursday’s opening night of the Sequim High School operetta “Fiddler on the Roof” — or those who want to see it again — can buy a ticket online or at the door for the 7 p.m. performance.
This, the high school’s 49th annual operetta, features a cast of nearly 50 students and a live orchestra. Tickets range from $10 to $15.
It also will be performed during a 2 p.m. matinee Saturday and during the second weekend of the Sequim Irrigation Festival next week.
Family Fun Day
On Saturday, Family Fun Day on Washington Street between Sequim and Second avenues will feature booths and activities for children and their families from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Kids Parade at 10 a.m. is part of Family Fun Day. Children 12 and younger are welcome, and no registration is needed.
The route will start at Second Avenue and Washington Street, continue east on Washington and turn south to the alley between U.S. Bank and Sequim Spice and Tea to Bell Street before wending its way through the Street Fair on Bell Street to the entertainment stage at the corner of Bell Street and Second Avenue.
Along with a grand prize, awards will be given for best festival theme, best cartoon or storybook character, best dressed pet and best mini-float.
The Irrigation Festival royalty — Queen Megan O’Mera and Princesses Morgan King, Emily Larson and Amanda Sanders — will be at the parade.
More than 60 vendors will offer their goods at the Street Fair on Bell Street between Sequim and Second avenues from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
On Centennial Square at the corner of Washington Street and Sequim Avenue, the Sequim Farmers Market will offer some 20 vendors with locally grown produce, crafts and baked good from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
At Pioneer Park, Peninsula Driftwood Artists will host the group’s 46th annual show from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
Driftwood sculptures by artists from through the Pacific Northwest will be displayed and sold. Artists also will give demonstrations.
The activities are a warmup for the festival’s Grand Finale Weekend from next Thursday through Sunday, May 10.
Highlights of next weekend will include a carnival, the strongman competition, the logging show with a truck and tractor pull, a Dungeness Audubon River Center fun run, a car show and, of course, the 120th Irrigation Festival Grand Parade.
For the parade, Sequim Noon Rotary is selling front-row seating adjacent to the reviewing stand on Washington Street near Thomas Building Center, 301 W. Washington St., for $3.
Tickets can be purchased before parade day at Beal Carpet and Drapery, 213 E. Washington St., Suite 4, or Jim Carl Insurance, 369 W. Washington St.
Tickets also will be sold the day of the parade if there are still seats available.
For more information about the festival, visit www.irrigationfestival.com.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or at leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.
