West Seattle Summer Fest 2016: Friday, report #2

(Our first Friday report on Summer Fest is here)

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4:09 PM: Things are just ducky as the first day of West Seattle Summer Fest 2016 moves toward evening. (You’ll find the birds, along with pigs and goats, at GreenLife on the south end of the festival zone.) The main-stage music has begun, too – it started with the 3 pm performers from School of Rock:

Nastybits is playing now, with Braindrain at 5, and of course headliners Tacocat tonight at 9:30.

If you’re down here, you might be looking at all the opening-soon restaurants and wondering what’s new. We broke the news earlier this week that Dumplings of Fury is planning to open July 20th. That’s one day after the scheduled opening of Shelby’s Bistro and Ice Creamery – not in time for Summer Fest, but we just found out that Shelby’s is offering sneak-peek tours the next two days, 10 am-6 pm Saturday and 11 am-5 pm (which are the official Summer Fest hours, too). They won’t be able to serve food or ice cream until they officially open, though.

Something else that’ll be big the next two days – the 360-degree group photos to be taken here at California/Alaska by the Southwest Seattle Historical Society, whose booth is right across from Easy Street Café:

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SWSHS is also offering walking tours. See the schedule in our story from Friday.

5:52 PM: Biggest question right now – when’s closing time tonight? Booths are supposed to stay open at least until 6 pm. Some will be folding up then – some will stay open later, and again, the music continues well into the night. Despite a cloudy/showery forecast, the weather’s been great all day, and so have the people.

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The food booths are usually going strong through dinnertime. If you’re into total festival food, look for the Deep Fried PB&J booth, and consider the deep-fried Nutella and banana sandwich ($7). And if you’re planning to come tomorrow, some unique shopping:

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Earlier we mentioned that shops from outside The Junction often book Summer Fest booths to introduce themselves to more West Seattleites – that sign, across from the Fitness Together (WSB sponsor) building north of California/Alaska, goes with Mystery Made, whose brick-and-mortar shop is in Admiral. Continue further north, and you can find “badass barware” in this trailer:

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It’s on California north of Oregon. Speaking of beverages – Bin 41‘s wine garden is now open outside their shop on the southwest corner of California and Alaska; the official festival beer garden is by the stage on California north of Oregon; you’ll also find other festival-only outdoor areas including at The Beer Junction just south of California/Oregon.

P.S. If you’re coming tomorrow or Sunday, another reason to stop by here at the Info Booth – by day’s end we now have info you can peruse about a variety of other big West Seattle summer events – WS Outdoor Movies (which start one week from tomorrow), Alki Art Fair (two weeks away), Hi-Yu events, even a poster for the West Seattle Food Bank‘s “Grand Affair” benefit coming up September 16th. Or, just wave as you pass – thanks to all the fine folks who have come by to say hi today/tonight already. We’ll be in the info booth until about 6:30, and then heading out for a break before coming back in time for the later musical acts.

6:48 PM: We haven’t left just yet – still plenty of people circulating. While as we mentioned the “official” closing hour for booths was 6 pm, some stay open – including food vendors, and rides are still running too (as mentioned earlier, tickets are $1.25, with ride prices from 1 to 5 tickets, and a day pass is $20 – there was a $45 three-day pass but kind of too late for that now – update, rides run until 8 pm). Biggest question this hour, “which way to the main stage?” Answer: North end of the festival zone. Acapulco Lips is up at 7, Chastity Belt at 8, Tacocat at 9:30.

Snack tip for tomorrow: We’ve spent the day staring across the intersection at QFC’s tent, which again this year has fruit kabobs, water, and coconuts. Water’s $1, fruit/coconuts are priced $3-$4. They’ve closed down for the night now but will be back tomorrow under the orange umbrellas.

6 Replies to "West Seattle Summer Fest 2016: Friday, report #2"

  • Sue July 8, 2016 (5:18 pm)

    Pedestrians, please be careful crossing at 42nd & Alaska. I’ve been sitting here a while and have seen many near-misses of drivers who are impatient about missing lights because of increased pedestrians and I’m seeing a lot of cars cutting people off and people screaming at them.

  • Kadoo July 8, 2016 (8:23 pm)

    That’s a bad corner on a good day but worse today. I’ve come close to being hit twice by distracted drivers twice at that corner. Drivers, make eye contact with pedestrians.

  • Joe Dirt July 8, 2016 (9:08 pm)

    I saw it tonight. Pedestrians get in a daze and keep walking like there is no light or they are just following the crowd so they are in the crosswalk/intersection when east/west has a green light. Furthermore, alcohol doesn’t help people’s senses. A lot more businesses are setting up white fence patios and serving like crazy.  I love to drink but I don’t think it used to be so wide spread at the street fair. Something bad will eventually happen.

  • Joe Dirt July 8, 2016 (9:59 pm)

    Just for clarification, where I saw the   with peds was at Oregon and CA Ave. 

  • Joe Dirt July 8, 2016 (10:02 pm)

    Seems like an accident waiting to happen to allow vehicles to cut through on Oregon. 

    • WSB July 8, 2016 (11:52 pm)

      It’s been set up that way for as long as we have covered this. Last serious crash at that intersection was three years ago in the middle of the night with almost no one around.

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