West Seattle Summer Fest tomorrow! More previews, more parking

10 am tomorrow, West Seattle Summer Fest kicks off, with three days of celebration in the heart of The Junction. Just in — Steve Huling is opening up his site along Fauntleroy, south of the Shell station, for extra Summer Fest parking. Meantime: The beer gardens are in the works, including the one by Junction Plaza Park that’ll raise money to finish its construction (photo above). And tonight at 6, the street closures kick in, which means a fun time to walk in the middle of the street – during the monthly West Seattle Art Walk (6-9 pm) and afterward – but also means detours (and Jonathan French tells us parking-enforcement officers are on the prowl already). A few more notes: When you stop by to say hi at WSB Summer Fest HQ at the northwest corner (facing Easy Street) of the big tent in the center of California/Alaska, take a minute to fill out a survey (just one page, on a laptop!) about your Summer Fest experience, and that’ll get you entered in a drawing for a $100 Junction shopping spree. … See the T-shirt at right? You’ll be able to buy it from the Delridge Playground project volunteers at Summer Fest, $15. They’ll be in the “community tent” near Super Supplements, raising money to feed volunteers during the big playground-building day July 17 (a week from tomorrow!), also raising money by selling $1 lemonade and $2 raffle tickets (prizes including a sunset sail cruise and a walk-on role for a child in the national show “BizKid$”). You can stop by and see the playground design, too … Click! Design That Fits (WSB sponsor) will be down from the Admiral District to have a Summer Fest presence. From the Click! website: “You can come to the Click! booth and get 20% off Smersh Design Jewelry and Orla Kiely Handbags, and take home a coupon for 15% off your next purchase at Click! Design That Fits.” … Junction retailer Capers sent word of Summer Fest deals too: Owner Lisa says, “Capers encourages everyone to ‘represent’ the neighborhood with their new shipment of West Seattle hats and t-shirts. They are featuring outdoor furniture at 50% off list, selected pillows $9.99, and ‘Mary’s Deals’ all weekend. Hope to see y’all at the Festival.” Hmm, there’s two T-shirt mentions so far. Ready for a third? We may have a T-shirt announcement of our own tomorrow. Stand by. Meantime, if you’re at Summer Fest late Saturday, hang around to check out the Home Alive! benefit at Rocksport (more details on Facebook). Keep sending the Summer Fest scoop – we’ll write more tonight and we will start previewing when the sun rises tomorrow, as well as packing up to be based on site from the moment it opens at 10 am Friday. Official Summer Fest website – with vendors, music, entertainers, maps, more — is here. P.S. Just as we were finishing this, we got a note about these folks:

Jessica sent the note, saying:

I wanted to send you a quick heads up about a unique West Seattle group that will be performing at Summerfest tomorrow on the California Stage at 3 pm. They’re called Pillow Army, and they are an avant chamber-pop group that includes cello, violin, and flute. They have unusual, complicated musical parts that would be of interest to anyone curious about the merger of classical and pop sensibilities. They also have somewhat daring and unconventional lyrical content, such as the song “Chicken Wants Her Beak Back”‘ which is a fun, upbeat song with a sneaky message decrying factory farming. They also do a mean cover of the Walrus, by the Beatles (which has beautiful string parts).

“Chicken Wants Her Beak Back” is the song in the video. Pillow Army’s MySpace site is here. Live music starts 2 pm tomorrow – all listed here (including Mudhoney headlining tomorrow night at 8:10!).

9 Replies to "West Seattle Summer Fest tomorrow! More previews, more parking"

  • StreetFair Loather July 9, 2009 (8:02 pm)

    So… another year of the Street Fair. I’m sure it’s great and nice for the community…. but it becomes hell for those of us that live in the junction. I have to park my vehicles at a house 30 miles from here to stay safe while my gf has to park hers anywhere from 3-6 blocks here. So now our cars are out of our site, possibly in places that will have a higher possibility of crime, and make it difficult to live our day to day life.

    Besides this, The added noise makes it difficult to get to bed before early morning hours and it starts back up earlish the next morning. It’s pretty much to a point I avoid the entire event like the plague. I guess that is what we get for living in the city in a mixed use building. Currently on our agenda is to get into a house off the junction so that our lives are not adversely affected by an event that should be fun and enjoyable.

  • Jamie July 10, 2009 (12:25 am)

    I have to say that walking in the middle of the street is awesome! So does my lil 2 year old. I took him and his lil sister out for a walk tonight and my lil man thought it was the greatest thing to be able to ride what he calls his “board” really its a scooter in the middle where cars drive! He got a kick out of the little ramps that they have set up in front of some places =) And not to forget to mention he had a BLAST whatching all the skater kids from the new skate church do their thing =)

  • Jamie July 10, 2009 (12:31 am)

    Street Fair Laother!
    Really man? I think you are taking that a little to far out. I live a 1/2 a block away and I get parking. Its no different from any other day of the week! And I live next to 3 nail places!!!! And the noise really? I looked at the clock tonight and the music stoped at about 10:15ish I was able to get BOTH kids down. I think Rite-Aid sells ear plugs. DOnt get me wrong im not trying to be mean but its something that happends 3 days out of a year. Do you have to be such a grinch about it??

  • StreetFair Loather July 10, 2009 (9:16 am)

    Hey Jamie,
    I normally love this type of even. The people, foods, entertainment, it’s a nice break from things. Though when it negatively affects work and finding parking near your residence (I’ve already had one vehicle stolen in the last year that has never been recovered), It becomes a burdon to us limited few that live in mixed use buildings.

    Speaking of affecting work, it makes it difficult as I have to find alternate means of transportation to and from work. I work at an IT company, so it is fast paced and requires extensive focus combined with critical thinking to perform. When you’re woken up 6-8 times between 12 midnight to 5am from the construction of the fairs components and people yelling back and forth, it doesn’t lend to any sort of productive work day and a Very Very grouchy me.

  • Karen July 10, 2009 (2:28 pm)

    Tried to find the Delridge Playground group to buy a t-shirt and sign up to help build the playground, but no one seemed to know where they were…Can anyone help me get in contact with them?

  • WSB July 10, 2009 (3:02 pm)

    They’re supposed to be in the Community Tent, which is being run by West Seattle Helpline, and it’s on the end of the Alaska stub of the festival, by the music stage – I haven’t been over there yet so I don’t know if they’re there now, but that’s where the community groups are supposed to be … TR

  • Karen July 10, 2009 (3:51 pm)

    I have checked there several times and apparently, the groups have split themselves up and know one knows what time the others are going to be there. Checked with your booth several times and was told the same thing.

  • WSB July 10, 2009 (3:56 pm)

    Sorry to hear that. Best I’ll be able to do is e-mail Holli from Delridge and ask her if they had a change in plan or a schedule .. also I hope to walk the entirety of the festival before too long and see who’s hiding where! – TR

  • Holli July 11, 2009 (10:14 pm)

    The Delridge Playground volunteers were there Friday from 5-8pm, and Saturday from 2-8pm. We’ll be there Sunday with the North Delridge Neighborhood Council from 11am-7pm.

    The confusing thing is that the row of community organizations have a huge banner for the West Seattle Nursery which is our generous sponsor, providing these tables and space. We had several people ask us gardening questions today.

    So, to find us on Sunday, look for a huge, West Seattle Nursery banner. Our table is located on Alaska Street beside Suppersupplements, facing Cupcake Royale.

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