(adding frequent updates and new pix through early evening – scroll to the bottom of this post)

That’s “Sonic Pezz” from the Rat City Rollergirls, at their dunk tank next to Shoofly Pie Company on the east side of California, north of Oregon. Meantime — three hours till the Street Dance – we’ll be here in the Information Booth at least till 7, then back to cover the Street Dance. Evening music interest is revving up, if the questions we’re getting here at the booth are any indication. Just had a lesson in “you never know who’s within earshot” — a booth visitor was asking some questions about West Seattle development, and where public input comes into the process, so we were giving a Cliff’s Notes explanation of the Design Review process – and then found out that Southwest Design Review Board member Deb Barker was standing barely inches away. (We didn’t misspeak about anything, Deb assures us.) Also dropping by moments ago: Michelle Edwards, former Hi-Yu Festival royalty (and daughter of Jim Edwards, who’s involved in tons of cool things from the West Seattle Big Band to next week’s American Legion Post 160-presented Grand Parade – we’ve got the list of entrants and we’ll post a few notes a little later). 5:27 PM UPDATE: Ryan Reese from Garlic Jim’s Pizza (WSB sponsor) is here talking with us and the Chamber folks now; our booth still has some shade on the east side. When WSB’s Patrick the Sales Guy brought back the RCRG dunk-tank pix you see above, he quipped, “The Rat City Rollergirls say it’s so hot, they’re now self-dunking!” 5:48 PM UPDATE: Not all the food booths are in the “food court” zone on the west side of Alaska – local venues along the street have stands too, like Husky Deli, where we caught owner Jack Miller working with the condiments:

And of course, the festival’s full of kids burning off energy – like the Junction Jam skateboard zone by Wells Fargo at 44th/Alaska:

Just realized we never posted this video clip from first thing this morning (9:30-ish) when Mayor Nickels and wife Sharon stopped by to say hi to Patti Mullen of the West Seattle Chamber, with whom we’re helping staff the Info Booth:

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6:09 PM UPDATE: OK, tonight’s hot music act is clearly The Saturday Knights – more than a few people have stopped by the Info Booth (where we’ll be till about 7; the rest of the Info Team has cleared out) to ask when and where they’re playing. (Answer: South stage, at California/Edmunds, 6:45 pm. Beer gardens at both ends of Summer Fest, by the way). Forgot to mention yet another notable visitor from the past few hours — Scott from Central District News, one of the few other serious neighborhood-news sites in the city (Scott was one of the other guests during our KUOW appearance a couple weeks ago) – he joked he’s here to check out the neighborhood-festival competition. 6:45 PM UPDATE: More scenes from today – first, the rock-climbing “wall” that’s part of the kids’ fun zone on Alaska east of California:

Another local vendor we’ve spotted – these are the glass clams from Avalon Glass Works, whose proprietor Shannon Felix has a booth here:

And one more scene of the amazing lion dance/martial-arts demo we mentioned in our first update.

More Summer Fest updates to come … with the street dance tonight, The Junction will jump well into the night. 7:12 PM UPDATE: Spare battery’s about to die, we’re going home to switch gear out and come back for the big dance. More later, including a couple other non-Summer Fest events we covered today.

(frequent updates, including photos and video, added at the bottom of this post throughout the afternoon)

If you want to see the West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival float up close and personal before the Grand Parade (one week from today; want to join the marching unit that WSB is part of? here’s how – and watch WSB later this weekend for some advance scoop on parade highlights) — it’s on display toward the north end of West Seattle Summer Fest today, just north of Oregon. Buy a “Luna Park” Hi-Yu button and support the festival, whose volunteers put on so many fun events each summer (Concert in the Park at Hiawatha, with West Seattle Big Band, is coming up Tuesday night). Not far from the float, you’ll find the first-ever Summer Fest Art Dive tent:

Again today, we’re with West Seattle Chamber of Commerce reps in the Information Booth (California/Alaska, heart of the “Walk All Ways” intersection) – stop by and say hi if you have a moment (and answer the informal survey we’re taking, with questions including “where are you originally from?” and “does West Seattle need a hotel?”. We’ll continue posting new pix, info, sightings, etc., all day as we did yesterday; already today, Mayor Nickels stopped by the booth on the way to the Ercolini Park dedication (video later; see the previous post for a photo from Ercolini), Peter Wolf from Neighborhood House stopped by to chat about the upcoming groundbreaking for the new center in High Point, and shortly afterward, High Point Neighborhood Association president Andrew Mead happened by. 12:25 PM UPDATE: We managed to catch up with “The Velvet Bulldog” (from the WSB Forums) during her volunteer shift at the West Seattle Food Bank booth, where you can buy $5 raffle tickets for some great prizes (including 2 unrestricted R/T tickets on Alaska Airlines or Horizon Air; the raffle ticket itself is good for discounts at Elliott Bay Brewery or Christo’s on Alki) – that’s her with the dark hair, with Barb Bollero, Elva Dodd, and Dee Hayward. The WSFB booth is on the east side of the block between Alaska and Edmunds.

Random note – following up on one of our stories from yesterday – Junior Member of the Team was off buying some sunscreen in Jefferson Square; he ducked into the Starbucks and (no, we didn’t ask him to do this) asked “Is this store closing?” and they said “Yes.” Future journalist, perhaps. 12:45 PM UPDATE: Dave Montoure from the festival-presenting West Seattle Junction Association just stopped by to tell us about the results of an impromptu veggie-hotdog-eating contest on the South Stage: Manny from Georgetown Brewing Company won, putting away 6; close behind with 5 1/2 was Marcus from West Seattle-based Schooner Exact. 12:50 PM UPDATE: A lion-dancing group just went by, from Belltown Martial Arts – down one side of California and back up the other, and now they’re performing right in front of us – here’s a photo from their first passby:

Video later (the show’s continuing – martial-arts demo now.) 1:45 PM UPDATE: Just talked with Alan Harrison from ArtsWest, who reminded us of something that Forum members had discovered — a season-ticket special that’s only being offered during Summer Fest weekend — buy a season ticket this weekend and you get a free ticket to “bare,” plus a $10 gift voucher. On the east side of the same block as ArtsWest, you’ll find Furry Faces Foundation, whose Teri Ensley is famous for the fabulous “F-Cubed” plant sales, among other things:

2:08 PM UPDATE: Lt. Smith and Sgt. Strand (seen in yesterday’s coverage) are back – just reunited another lost child with parent(s) – now they’re “14 for 14.”