(WSB photo from 2012 West Seattle Junction Harvest Festival)
Along with trick-or-treating, activities and games, and an in-the-street edition of the West Seattle Farmers’ Market, the second annual Junction Harvest Festival also will include a chili competition, as a fundraiser for the West Seattle Food Bank! And the announcement just shared by the WS Junction Association invites restaurants to join in – with the signup deadline less than a week away:

Our neighborhood restaurants will bring their best pot of chili and compete for bragging rights of Best Chili at Harvest Festival – 2013. It’s free for restaurants to enter. The West Seattle public will vote by buying a flight of chili and choosing their favorite! 100% of the donations collected will go to the West Seattle Food Bank to help our community.

Some logistics and rules to enter. Participants must:

* Be a West Seattle business.
* Bring two gallons of hot chili made in commercial kitchen, and an electric warmer. Maintain chili’s temperature to meet health standards.
* Provide a chili server who has a current Food Handlers Card.
* Be ready to serve at 11am! With 2 gallons of chili, we’ll be able to serve about 100 flights and the competition will probably be done by 1pm.
* Space is limited to 8 competitors and a minimum of 4 competitors are needed.

We’ll provide everything else. To register, please email susan@wsjunction.org with your business name, contact person, and agreement that rules will be followed. October 23rd is the deadline!

The Harvest Festival happens 10 am-2 pm on Sunday, October 27th, with a costume parade at 11:30 am and trick-or-treating at noon. Lots of local businesses and organizations are offering free activities again this year (come bowl in the booth we’re sharing with WestSide Baby and West Seattle Bowl, aka “WSB x 3”). See you there!

(Chickens and fans at last year’s Fauntleroy Fall Festival; 2012 WSB photo by Nick Adams)
Just one week until this year’s Fauntleroy Fall Festival – 2 pm-5:30 pm Sunday, October 20th, in and around the Fauntleroy Schoolhouse, The Hall at Fauntleroy, Fauntleroy YMCA (WSB sponsor), and Fauntleroy Church. Judy Pickens shares a partial preview:

In addition to the festival’s customary line-up of free things to do, this year’s event will have a record number of environment-related activities, including

*Chickens and other backyard farm animals with the Seattle Farm Co-Op
*Sweet talk about bees with the Puget Sound Beekeepers
*Fly tying with Pete and his amazing array of supplies
*Salmon-hat decorating with the Fauntleroy Watershed Council
*A preview of the Kilbourne ravine project with Fauntleroy’s forest stewards
*Critter study with those fun-loving naturalists from Camp Long
*An up-close look at the Barton pump station upgrade with King County Wastewater Treatment Division

Here are more photos from last year’s festival; here’s a map to the festival location. See more festival previews on the FFF Facebook page.

ADDED MONDAY NIGHT: The music lineup is out now; from the FFF Facebook page:

• Church lot: Lauren Petrie (keyboard—2 p.m.), Pickled Okra (bluegrass—3 p.m.), 5 Buck Band (rock ‘n roll—4:30 p.m.)

• West side of schoolhouse: Jump Jazz (2:30 p.m.), Polka Service (4 p.m.)

• Fellowship Hall: Y Zumba (2 p.m.), Dance Seattle (classical—4 p.m.)

• Church sanctuary: Endolyne Children’s Choir (2 p.m. practice, 2:30 performance),

• Hall at Fauntleroy: Epic Jam Session (teens—2–5 p.m.)

That’s a scene from last year’s first-ever West Seattle Junction Harvest Festival, when we co-sponsored the “WSB x 3” bowling booth along with WestSide Baby and West Seattle Bowl. This year at the second-ever Harvest Festival – 10 am until 2 pm on Sunday, October 27th – we’ll be bowling again, and there’s still time for other local businesses/organizations to apply to present an activity, says WS Junction Association executive director Susan Melrose:

The Junction Association is closing the streets for West Seattle’s new favorite event! Our Sunday farmers market will take the streets, bringing the fall harvest and more. The West Seattle High School Marching Band will lead a children’s costume parade at 11:30 am. Junction businesses will host Trick-or-Treat starting at noon (not before).

The last important piece is the Harvest Games and Activities brought by our neighborhood’s awesome non-profits, churches, and businesses. Homemade games and crafts are the best! We already have 18 applicants and if your group would like to provide a FREE activity at the Harvest Festival, the application can be found here. Deadline for submission is October 1st.

We are also looking for volunteers to help close the street at 6 am (coffee included!) and at 8 am to help direct the activity providers. Sign up here! It feels good to help make something awesome for our community.

The West Seattle Junction Association and Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance produce this event for our neighborhood. Several businesses and non-profits have stepped forward to help make it happen with sponsorship support. Special thank you to our Harvest Festival Sponsors:

Bakery Nouveau * Franciscan West Seattle Family * Curious Kidstuff * 4730 California * West Seattle Blog
* Emeritus at West Seattle * Community School of West Seattle * LaFarge * Ventana Construction * Menashe and Sons Jewelers * Pagliacci Pizza * WestSide Baby

See you there!

(UPDATED TUESDAY with entertainment lineup – scroll to story’s end)

(WSB photo from WestFest 2012)
Now that this weekend’s big events are (mostly) over, we’re looking ahead to a festival that’s just five days away – Holy Rosary’s WestFest, next Friday and Saturday (September 20-21). Here’s the official announcement:

Come one, come all! Holy Rosary’s annual fall festival is right around the corner! Located at 4142 42nd Avenue SW, we throw open our doors and welcome all Friday 9/20, from 6 pm to 10 pm, and Saturday, 9/21, from 10 am to 10 pm. We are gearing up to host the season’s premier event for the West Seattle community; come see great local music and talent, eat delicious food, dob a round of bingo, race down the rides, try your luck at the cake walk, play carnival-style games galore, and so much more. There’s a beer garden for adults too — there is truly something for all ages!

Bring your young children early Saturday morning, from 10 am to noon, for “Toddler Time” at WestFest. Avoid the crowds and lines! They’ll enjoy better access to the blow-up rides and games with kids close to their age and ability.

Wristbands for Blow-up Rides:

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(WSB photo from first West Seattle Junction Harvest Festival, October 2012)
Last year, the annual West Seattle Junction Association-presented trick-or-treating event expanded into something new – and wildly popular from the very start: The WS Junction Harvest Festival, closing the street in the heart of The Junction for fun, games, a temporarily relocated Farmers’ Market, *and* trick-or-treating. And WSJA executive director Susan Melrose has just announced they’ll do it again for a second year!

Sunday, October 27th – 10 am – 2 pm
 
The West Seattle Junction Association is pleased to announce our second annual Harvest Festival.  Last year was awesome!  This event brought together our community in so many ways.  Our weekly farmers market took to the streets with color and flair, our local non-profits and business brought free kids activities and games, the West Seattle High School marching band led hundreds in a costume parade, and Junction brick-and-mortar businesses hosted their long standing Trick-or-Treat event.  The costumes were incredible… kudos West Seattle!  Let’s do it again!
 
If you’d like to help make it great:
 
1. Host a Booth:  Have your non-profit, school, business or club host an activity booth. 
2. Volunteer: The first shift helps close the streets at 6 am and second shifts helps direct booth hosts at 8 am.
3. Sponsor: While we’re running a low budget and free event with volunteer staff, closing the street is still expensive, and sponsors will help make this event possible.
 
Details on these ways to get involved are at wsjunction.org. See you there!

Look at the world through new eyes – or, at least, a new mask – by visiting the Nature Consortium‘s Arts in Nature Festival today. We wandered the festival grounds at West Seattle’s Camp Long during the first afternoon on Saturday, noticing that it’s not just about what you see …

…it’s also about what you hear – if you see that installation near the pond, walk up and listen! More scenes ahead:

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(WSB photo: Participants in 2011 Arts in Nature Festival ‘Species Parade’)
West Seattle’s next festival is six days away: As promised, Nature Consortium is bringing back the Arts in Nature Festival after a one-year hiatus. It’s next Saturday and Sunday (August 10-11) at Camp Long. The schedule is online – use the tabs on this page to see each individual day/venue. Saturday begins with Caspar Babypants at 11 am at the lodge; after that, he and Kate Endle will be in residence at Cabin 4 as part of the ongoing “Museum of Sound.” Headliners Cloud Cult will perform at the lodge at 7 pm Saturday and 2 pm Sunday. The always-popular Species Parade is set for 1 pm Saturday and 11:30 am Sunday in the meadow. And those are just a few items from the long list of festival events. This year marks the 15th anniversary of the first Arts in Nature Festival; admission is free, but a donation is suggested, $10 individual/$25 families.

All the park’s a stage at Hiawatha as Mediterranean Fantasy Fest, the region’s premier belly-dancing festival, continues for a few more hours. You just might find a troupe getting ready, as we did, while others are onstage:

Performances continue outdoors and indoors until about 5 pm today – here’s the schedule. And don’t miss the vendors! Among them, West Seattle’s own Dina Lydia, the Costume Goddess:

The festival’s been an annual tradition for more than a quarter of a century, founded by the Babylonian Ensemble, whose website tells the story here.

ADDED 8:46 PM: Dina Lydia shared a few of her photos from the festival:

Belly-dancing is for all agencies; those sisters dance as The Bellybuttons. Next, Shalaa and Amanda in sailor outfits for a humorous mother-daughter routine:

On to the traditional – a Persian dance by a member of the troupe Karavans:

Here’s veteran troupe Shahradezade Dance Ensemble with a traditional beladi dance in the Hiawatha gym:

And the student troupe Dancing Mirage:

SiDE NOTE: This festival’s over, but summer fun at Hiawatha keeps going – next up, six Thursday nights of music, with Summer Concerts at Hiawatha beginning next Thursday night – details here.)

(WSB photo from 2012 Alki Art Fair)
One of the marquee events in what looks to be West Seattle’s biggest weekend of the summer is the Alki Art Fair this Saturday and Sunday (July 20-21) – two days of arts, crafts, live music, food, and (if the forecast holds) beautiful weather at the beach. Here are the basics:

*Hours – 10 am-6 pm for the artists’ booths both days; music till 9 pm Saturday, 8 pm Sunday
*Transportation – If you’re not coming by bus or bicycle, or on foot, park at West Seattle High School (3000 California SW) and take the free shuttle bus!

And fair organizers have shared the artist/food-vendor lineup – always subject to last-minute change, but here’s where things stood as of this morning:

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Even if you’ve already been to West Seattle Summer Fest this year, come on down one more time before it’s over! Thanks to Krista for sharing the top photo – “beautiful day in The Junction,” she noted; so true! Music, shopping, food, art, and more – it’s all here, until 5 pm. Art, by the way, is here to observe, to purchase, and to create – Jessie shared this photo from the kids’ area by Wells Fargo, where youth can create along with Young At Art:

For our quick links to info – see our first morning report. And we would love to share your festival photos too – share them by e-mail at editor@westseattleblog.com, or via the WSB Facebook page.

1:38 PM NOTE: From Don Bereiter at Prudential NW Realty (WSB sponsor), whose booth has a fun game to check out: “For every child that participates, we are donating a can of food to the West Seattle and White Center Food Banks. 979 so far. Come on out and help a great cause!” (added) Here’s Tom Root and Chariti McEndoe photographed late in the day – note the counter’s gone up:

2:40 PM UPDATE: The last musical act of the day, The Jellyrollers, is scheduled to start right about now. Earlier, we caught Jazzberry with a young fan up front:

Summer Fest has been a bit lighter on political visitors than past years, but we’ve seen two mayoral candidates so far at the Info Booth – Mayor Mike McGinn, talking with, at right, Dave Montoure and Nancy Woodland from the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce:

And State Sen. Ed Murray, photographed talking with Susan Melrose from the West Seattle Junction Association:

WSJA, by the way, presents Summer Fest every year. Meantime, outside West Seattle Optix, balloon-making was in full swing earlier:

And there’s still time to get down and meet representatives of businesses, organizations, and service providers – we photographed Lisa at the Highline Medical (WSB sponsor) booth, handing out reusable bags.

More to come in the final few hours!

3:42 PM UPDATE: Just got a chance to upload video from today’s first performance onstage – that’s Rat City Brass! The festival is still crowded yet mellow. SPD Lt. Ron Smith, who heads up the on-site Summer Fest patrol, tells us there have been no major problems (and few minor ones) throughout the three days. As for the rest of West Seattle – we’ll get an update tomorrow, when the Southwest Precinct hosts the mayor, as the precincts around the city have been doing, for the latest on the Safe Communities project.

4:35 PM UPDATE: Down to the last half-hour, already. Another politician visited a little while ago:

With County Executive Dow Constantine – who said he had been making the rounds of festivals, including Kent Cornucopia Days earlier in the day – that’s Hamilton Gardiner and Jerome Cohen with him, both in the Info Booth today as community volunteers representing the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce.

5:04 PM UPDATE: And Summer Fest is a wrap for 2013. Thanks to everyone who’s been part of it – whether visitor, vendor, exhibitor, performer, staffer, local year-round merchant, volunteer, law enforcer, sponsor, etc. … it’s been awesome. We’ll have an update later tonight when the streets reopen – it’ll take a few hours for cleanup/breakdown/loadout.

P.S. Just for fun, we have a photo album on the WSB Facebook page with some of the dogs spotted at Summer Fest – see it here.

We recorded Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands around 5 pm, just as West Seattle Summer Fest, night 2, began. Once again tonight, 8 pm is the official end time for booths and most activities), but some, like the community groups, have rolled up for the night. It’s been sunny all day and on into the evening, not too hot, a perfect Seattle summer Saturday.

ADDED 7:20 PM: Thanks to Will Wharton for sharing this photo via the WSB Facebook page – a police officer handing out stickers to kids at Summer Fest:

When you get 10,000 people in one place at one time, it’s no small task to help make sure things stay lively but peaceful. Meantime, speaking of lively, our crew is just back from recording some video during Hobosexual‘s performance. (added – here it is):

More big smiles we saw today – Anna was selling LED light-up bows at Forsythe Studio:

We have a few more Saturday scenes to add later. But it’s after 8 pm, and the booths are closing up – music continues until about 11, with the Street Dance, featuring Whisky River at 10 pm.

Two Sunday notes: Yes, the West Seattle Farmers’ Market is on as usual tomorrow, 10 am-2 pm; Summer Fest itself does not officially open until 11 am, and closes at 5 pm.