AS-IT-HAPPENED COVERAGE: Morgan Junction Community Festival’s comeback

11:02 AM: We’re at Morgan Junction Park (6413 California SW), where the first Morgan Junction Community Festival since 2019 has just begun. As we’ve been previewing, the Morgan Community Association is presenting is an abbreviated edition – just two hours, until 1 pm. Two performers are scheduled – longtime festival favorites – The Bubbleman (who’s about to start), and acoustic musician Gary Benson. About half a dozen community organizations are here tabling too (as are we). Updates to come!

11:15 AM: MoCA says this may be The Bubbleman’s final show ever, after 40+ years – so they have a community card you can sign to wish him well.

11:40 AM: Bubbleman has wrapped up, with MoCA vice president Phil Tavel leading the crowd in a shouted “THANK YOU, BUBBLEMAN!” Music starts at noon; in the meantime you can visit the community organizations that are here:

The Whale Trail (above), Southwest Seattle Historical Society, CleanupSEA, Poogooder (first photo below), Westside HEY, 34th District Democrats, designers of the future park addition Board & Vellum (secon photo below), and us, all under canopies ringing the park.

You can also learn more about how to get involved with the Morgan Community Association (whose next quarterly meeting is July 20th).

12:03 PM: Gary Benson is performing now – quiet acoustic ballads, so people can visit the booths or sit on the park grass/benches and chat.

12:11 PM: And the sun has just made a guest appearance!

12:58 PM: And that’s a wrap. “Our festival will be returning more robustly next year,” MoCA promised in the closing announcement. (We’ll be adding more photos later.)

Freddie June 18, 2022 (11:59 am)

It’s a shame he’s retiring just before little ones can get their Covid vaccines. My son would love a gathering like this… in seven weeks.

Rocket June 18, 2022 (1:43 pm)

Freddie who is telling you it’s not safe to take your child outdoors? If you can feel a breeze on your face you are not at risk of contracting Covid simply stated. Today was quite a windy day. It’s a shame you didn’t come and enjoy the festival.Its been a hard couple of years but I hope you can get connected to a resource that helps you truly understand how to build a personal risk calculus that allows you to do things that are not just perfectly safe in terms of Covid but critical for the proper development of your child.
- Buttercup June 18, 2022 (7:08 pm)
  
  It’s a parents right how they want to address the covid situation with their children, No one has the right to “shame” them with unsolicited advice. Let them run their life their way and you people run your life your way.
  - Rocket June 19, 2022 (5:54 am)
    
    You are right. Parents are free to lock their child in a closet for fear of skin cancer, free to train and arm their kids with guns for fear of emasculation and a creeping tide of melanin, free to avoid normal healthy perfectly safe outdoor activities that would foster normal development, and free to ignore any advice (no matter how solid) they see on the internet. I can shame whoever I want the way they can wrap their kid in bubble wrap for fear of paper cuts.Regardless they should ask their pediatrician if they should be locking their child indoors and sequestering them or feeling safe being outdoors amongst a group of people on a windy day.
    
    Me and my kids were happy to be there and I suspect we will still be batting a thousand in terms of Covid avoidance so we just can’t stop winning it seems. Don’t take any of my reckless unqualified advice or else you might end up with happy healthy children somehow maintained on a normal developmental arc despite the chaos and fear of these past few years.
- Anne June 19, 2022 (11:38 am)
  
  Who exactly are you to tell a parent what is ok for their child? You have no knowledge of this family & their possible health issues. Heck that doesn’t really even matter-you do you & respect others right to do the same.

Just a dude June 18, 2022 (4:19 pm)

Life can be just as enjoyable with a mask on, it’s all about your attitude!

R June 18, 2022 (11:03 pm)

Thank you so much to the bubble man! I really appreciate that all the kids got to see a performance that was so fun and positive. It was clearly a labor of love.

Sorry, comment time is over.