PORT ANGELES — You know the music is good when the frenetic festival organizer takes time from her myriad responsibilities to sit and listen with everyone else.
“It’s not often I turn off my cell phone and sit in the front row,” said Anna Manildi, executive director of the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts, after emerging Saturday from a performance by accordionist Jeremiah McLane and fiddler Ruthie Dornfeld.
They hadn’t finished counting Friday’s attendance by early Saturday afternoon, but Manildi said it was “exceptional” for the four-day festival’s first day.
“The street fair is catching on. Attendance is usually average on Fridays and then really kicks in on Sunday,” she said.
Manildi said she hadn’t heard anyone say anything about the price of gasoline, which recently topped $4 a gallon for regular unleaded.
“That’s such a wild card. Everyone’s still coming. There’s been no complaints that I’ve heard,” she said.