(QUICK INFO: Bus reroutes here … Festival music schedule here … festival food options here … kids’ ride hours and pricing here)
(COVERAGE SO FAR: Saturday night music, here … Saturday evening, here … Saturday morning/afternoon, here … Friday night, with music, here … Friday evening, here … Friday morning/afternoon, here)

West Seattle Summer Fest‘s third and final day is officially under way! The question of the day so far – “where’s the Farmers’ Market?” As seen in our top photo, it’s in its old spot in the parking lot behind KeyBank – same hours as every week, 10 am-2 pm – if you’re trying to enter off SW Alaska, just look for the gap between the kids’ rides, on the alley.

Even if you’ve already been to the festival – today’s the day to come back and take another look, or do some things you missed on your first tour. Such as – support local nonprofits! More than a few of them are selling raffle tickets – including the West Seattle Helpline, West Seattle Food Bank, and the quilters who are donating raffle proceeds from this creation to the Senior Center of West Seattle:

(WSB photo taken Friday)

The crowd has grown quickly today – maybe because it’s expected to be extra-hot later – so far, though, nice breeze! Mainstage music (California north of Oregon) starts at noon, with Rat City Brass. More coverage to come!

12:19 PM: Another place to find out about, and support, some of your local nonprofits/community groups – GreenLife, headquartered at Junction Plaza Park (42nd/Alaska), where they have a few T-shirts left:

Sustainable West Seattle presents GreenLife, where you can find out about the West Seattle TimeBank, Metro buses, registering to vote, recycling, using solar power, and more, via these booths along SW Alaska east of California:

Diver Laura‘s virtual-reality look under the Salish Sea is not to be missed, either – get to GreenLife!

Back in other booth rows, it’s a great day to learn about your local businesses (and pick up some swag). HomeStreet Bank (WSB sponsor) is right across from us in the heart of California/Alaska and has several freebies including discs.

Meantime, up at the mainstage, we caught a bit of the zesty Rat City Brass:

At California/Alaska, the Celtic dancers are expected to be back around 1. More coverage to come.

1:37 PM: They were, and it was a lively performance:

Comerford has regular sessions in West Seattle – e-mail celticartsnw@hotmail.com for info. Summer Fest isn’t just about being a spectator – you can participate too! The Giant Games continue up on the north side of California/Oregon, where you can also help paint the community mural. You can also stop by the Info Tent and ask us a question. Minutes ago: “I know Easy Street Records is famous, but WHY is it so famous?” (Our answer was long.)

3 PM: Only two hours left till the festival closes for another year – right now on the SW corner of California/Alaska, it’s the kids’ pie-eating contest.

(Junction Association executive director Lora Swift interviewing the contestants pre-contest)

Passing the Info Tent a few minutes ago, this cool canine:

Don’t miss the chance to contribute to the community mural before the festival ends – on California just north of Oregon:

The West Seattle Junction Association – the local merchants who put this festival on! – will hang the finished mural in a public space. Meantime, many of the sidewalk sales (did you know Summer Fest has its roots in a Junction-wide summer sidewalk sale?) are offering discounts – like the American Cancer Society Discovery Shop (west side of California between Alaska and Oregon), where these potted plant creations were just $4!

Some of the vendor booths are West Seattle merchants visiting from their storefronts. Longtime WSB sponsor Dream Dinners is based on the east outer side of Jefferson Square, and has a Summer Fest booth on the east side of California south of Alaska:

If you haven’t used Dream Dinners before, you can sign up for their open-house deal, for 6:30 pm Tuesday (July 17th) or August 7th – password dinner – make three dinners for $34.99!

3:25 PM: A bit of video from one of this afternoon’s bands:

Onstage coming up at 4 pm – The Dusty 45s rock Summer Fest 2018 to a close.

4 PM: It’s that time! Co-publisher is up catching the start of The Dusty 45s. Meanwhile, Paul Weatherman sent more great aerials:

That’s the heart of the festival – here’s what it looked like from above the Farmers’ Market and kid zones on the west edge of the festival a bit earlier:

When the festival officially ends at 5, the cleanup/breakdown begins, and the streets generally remain closed to traffic until it’s over hours later – but everything will be back to normal by early Monday morning. Remember that NEXT Saturday, California SW is closed again for the West Seattle Grand Parade, until early afternoon – here’s our most-recent preview.

4:30 PM: A taste of The Dusty 45s:

We don’t start packing up until the top of the hour but right across Walk-All-Ways from us is a sign the festival’s wrapping up – the QFC booth (water, coconuts, fruit skewers all weekend) is in cleanup mode.

Big thanks to everyone who’s been in the Info Tent all weekend – it’s our 11th year of being headquartered here and helping answer questions while covering the festival as it happens – lots of great volunteers have been here, as well as The Junction’s event staff (special shoutout to “Skaty” and producer Oliver Little‘s Monumental Undertaking).

5 PM: It’s a wrap! Thanks also to the thousands who made this a mega-party again this year.