(QUICK LINKS: Music lineups … vendor list … food and drink … Kids Zone info)

4:57 PM: The Black Whales played at mid-afternoon on the West Seattle Summer Fest main stage (on California between Oregon and Genesee), one of two festival venues where you’ll find music right now. The north end of the festival zone is where SW Oregon is closed for the first time, and besides enabling a better flow of festivalgoers, it’s also created a bonus zone for food and beverages:

That’swhere you will find the non-alcoholic coladas in whole pineapples, as well as burgers and the New Zealand-style ice cream from Highland Park Corner Store that we mentioned Friday, Tip Top Ice Cream (look for the bike). Traveling southbound along the west side of the Oregon-to-Alaska block, you’ll also see the mobile romance bookstore Beguiled:

And for a second day, the Fourth Emerald Games Pokémon scavenger hunt seems to be hugely popular. More to come as we move into late afternoon and early evening!

5:23 PM: Thanks to Paul Weatherman for the aerial views – above is “The Porch,” the all-ages zone in the lot at the southeast corner of 44th and Alaska, with food, beverages (including alcohol), and places to sit and enjoy them. He also sent this view of Walk-All-Ways and northward (where we’re in the Info Booth throughout the festival):

Further north, Massy Ferguson was on the main stage last hour – WSB contributor Jason Grotelueschen recorded video:

5:40 PM: Though the idea of an outdoor watch party during Summer Fest didn’t take flight, some local venues are full of enthusiastic fans watching today’s matches – this was the scene during Norway vs. England:

Jason got that pic of soccer fans watching at The Beer Junction. Meantime, we just got a question about tomorrow – yes, the Farmers’ Market IS on – it’ll be on California north of Oregon as it’s been for the past few festivals, as the Main Stage will be decommissioned after tonight’s bands.

7:06 PM: Thanks to Jerry Simmons for this bubbly festival photo:

We’ve arrived at the final official festival hour of the day, though music will continue until 11-ish. One of the most fun things about the festival has little to do with vendors, food, or music … it’s seeing friends and neighbors as what seems like everyone on the peninsula converges on The Junction for the weekend. We get to see a lot of people we mostly know from email the rest of the year. Like someone who just stopped by the booth, Perla X. Caballero of the Morbidly Curious Book Club, one of several book clubs whose monthly meetings are listed on the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar (always free – send West Seattle event info to westseattleblog@gmail.com).

8:32 PM: We’ve left but expect to have more music clips to post later. Tomorrow instead of a stage, the area north of SW Oregon will hold the Farmers’ Market, 10 am-2 pm as usual. Festival hours will be 10 am-5 pm. See you there!

10:10 PM: Thanks again to Paul Weatherman for more aerials – this time, evening views of the stage/beverage garden area tonight!

11:23 PM: And here’s what it was like on the ground:

That’s from WSB contributor Jason Grotelueschen, who also recorded clips of most of tonight’s bands, starting with Chewing Gum (recently showcased in an Easy Street show) at The Big Dark Corner:

On the main stage, Bog Ogre:

Bexley:

Dark Chisme:

And True Loves:

No main stage music on Summer Fest Sundays, but The Big Dark Corner starts up at 10 am.

(QUICK LINKS: Music lineups … vendor list … food and drink … Kids Zone info)

10:55 AM: Good morning! The second, and biggest, day of West Seattle Summer Fest has just begun. Things are semi-quiet in the first hour, but it’ll rev up soon enough. Today in the heart of Walk-All-Ways, you’ll see some dancing – Jennifer Cepeda and DancePowered are scheduled to be back around noon with the medley they performed Thursday night, for one. Noon is also when the Main Stage – by the Post Office on California south of Genesee – gets going, with a showcase by Mode Music Studios (WSB sponsor) students. In front of KeyBank, The Big Dark Corner – named for the local record label programming it for the first time – starts up at 1:45 pm. (See the music lineups here.)

The main stage actually has had one event so far today – Maari Falsetto from Inner Alchemy brought her free Saturday morning “Heavily Meditated” free group meditation to the mainstage – WSB contributor Macey Wurm tells us about it:

Inner Alchemy and friends rose early this morning to start off Summer Fest with what they call “Heavily Meditated.” About 50 people gathered beneath the main stage, assembling chairs and mats in oval formation. The meditation session led by Maari Falsetto included practicing a 30-minute Kirtan Kriya Meditation and gong bath.

Folks gathered today were here to “anchor the intention of community, connection, truth, and harmony, according to Maari. The group began the guided Kirtan Kriya meditation, repeating the mantra “Sat Nam” or “truth is my identity. It was broken down into four sections– “Sa” meaning “life,” “Ta” meaning “death,” “Na” meaning “transformation”, and “Ma” meaning “rebirth”. The mantra was chanted outloud, at a whisper, and internally throughout the session.

Maari brought the group back and invited everyone to open their eyes after a gong bath and wind chimes. They gathered for a post-meditation picture, and Maari reminded the group of Inner Alchemy’s free Saturday meditation sessions– done in the forest over the summer! Registration is required.

“We are blessing West Seattle this morning, aren’t we!”, one participant mused.

Inner Alchemy is a year-round Junction-based business. If you haven’t already seen it, here’s our list of what some other year-round busnesses are doing on Summer Fest weekend. Much more festival coverage to come!

12:02 PM: As previewed, future Junction business Anchorhead Coffee has a pop-up in front of their future location at the ex-Starbucks on the southeast California/Alaska corner:

Speaking of food and beverage, the Junction Association wants to remind you about the sustainability that’s part of it all again this year:

That photo from The Porch – the name for the food/beverage zone in the lot behind KeyBank and The Missing Piece – shows two major ways: Free water-bottle refills (several locations, including The Porch and near the beverage arden by the main stage. And it shows some of the MANY bins for depositing your reusable dishes and cutlery after you buy food/drink from a visiting vendor – PLEASE be sure to return yours when done – not just to help with the “zero waste” goal, but also to keep WSJA – a nonprofit that shells out plenty to make this festival happen – from having to cover the cost.

12:30 PM: DancePowered’s California/Alaska performance, a Summer Fest tradition most years, is wrapping up – video soon here:

We’re also at the Mode students’ main stage performance – video below, Ashton Wecker – you may have seen Ashton busking at the Farmers’ Market:

And student band Honey All Right performed during the Mode spotlight, too:

12:42 PM: Irish dancing right now in Walk-All-Ways! And just east of there, on SW Alaska, the Kids Zone offers a combination of free and ticketed fun – this year, the West Seattle Arcade games are back:

1:30 PM: All weekend here in the Info Booth, you’ll find not just us but Junction Association volunteers with merch and swag info, plus community organizations including, right now, Seal Sitters Marine Mammal Stranding Network:

And the Southwest Seattle Historical Society:

Both have brought interesting items to see – like this at the SWSHS table:

1:52 PM: We sent Macey out to look for unique vendors we haven’t featured yet – here’s one she found:

Simple Modern Living

The Simple Modern living booth, run by outdoor-fanatics Sara and Sawyer, features topography maps on bottle openers, coasters, keychains, magnets, and pillows! The coaster sets are made of poplar and eco-felt with a matte wood finish.

Lots and lots of handmade items! And here’s the collision of dumplings and keychains:

Fin and Feather

Build your own dim sum keychains. You can pick three miniature “buns” coming in different animals and characters. Then, choose the color of your steamer basket for the buns to create the keychain! All supplies are locally 3-D printed in Kirkland.

Also happening now, The Big Dark Corner has launched its lineup of music – video shortly.

2:38 PM: That’s a bit of Bonita Fishwife‘s set.

3:28 PM: As we’ve noted many a time, Summer Fest began as a sidewalk sale for Junction merchants – that part of the tradition continues for many of those here now – Paper Boat Booksellers (4522 California SW; WSB sponsor) is having a sale all weekend, as mentioned in our local-all-year-biz roundup:

In the same block, look for the West Seattle Food Bank booth – and buy a fundraising raffle ticket:

That’s Whit with the tickets – just $10 each … One more nonprofit note, Hope School is running the Kids Zone today – you can say hi to Sally and crew:

We’re going to launch the day’s second SummerFest report shortly, after a break for some other news.