Festival season is at its peak, and this weekend is practically bubbling over with options for families, music and arts lovers, foodies, and people-watching enthusiasts. We’ve compiled all the big ways to fill the next few sunny days ahead, from Timber! Outdoor Music Festival to Ballard SeafoodFest, and from the West Seattle Summer Fest to the Seattle Outdoor Theater Festival. See this weekend’s options below, and check out our festivals calendar for future events.
Found something you like and don’t want to forget about it later? Click “Save Event” on any of the linked events below to add it to your own private list.
ARTS
Art on the Ave
Travel to “Tacoma’s most eclectic district” for art and music, as well as gifts to buy and food to nosh.
Sunday, Sixth Avenue, Tacoma
Georgetown Garden Walk
Stroll the streets of the historic Georgetown neighborhood to admire its gardens and art, explore its shops and restaurants, and hear live music on this self-guided tour.
Sunday, Various locations (Georgetown)
Redmond Arts Festival
Shop for jewelry, food, garments, and more as you listen to nine live bands and sip mimosas, beer, or wine in the garden.
Friday-Sunday, Redmond Town Center
Wedgwood Art Festival
This small but appealing local fair offers painting, crafts, sculpture, and music every year.
Saturday-Sunday, Our Lady of the Lake (Wedgwood)
COMMUNITY
Derby Days
What began in 1940 as a bike derby and parade to raise money for holiday decorations and athletic equipment is now a celebration of Redmond’s diverse community. Enjoy parades, races, game booths, carnival rides, live music, arts, and more.
Friday-Saturday, Redmond City Hall
Kent Cornucopia Days
South King County’s “largest family festival” boasts a street fair, athletic events, a grand parade, and live entertainment.
Friday-Sunday, Various locations (Kent)
Lakewood SummerFEST
Lakewood’s all-day summer festival is a potpourri of family-friendly entertainment, featuring everything from fire dancers and stilt walkers to an international music festival and a pet parade. Plus, graze from over 30 trucks, cool off in a beer garden, shop from market vendors, run a 5K, watch The Greatest Showman in the park, and much more.
Saturday, Fort Steilacoom Park (Lakewood)
Lucerne Seafair Milk Carton Derby
You’d be forgiven for thinking that a milk carton derby entails individual milk cartons fashioned into miniature boats, but you would be mistaken. This Seafair tradition—which started in 1972 and bills itself as a “quirky celebration of creativity, science, and boatmanship”—invites crafty community members to use a bunch of milk cartons (300 per team) to assemble vessels sturdy enough to hold human bodies. The participants then paddle their creations on Green Lake to win prizes before a group of adoring fans (aka friends and family). The whole affair wraps up in the early afternoon, making for a very productive and sun-soaked Saturday.
Saturday, Green Lake Park
Mill Creek Festival
This community festival has all of the activities you would expect, such as live music, local artisan goods, food vendors, and arts and crafts, plus bouncy houses and rock walls for the kids, and an entire area for animal activities, because family fun shouldn’t exclude non-human family members.
Saturday-Sunday, Various locations
Northwest Pirate Festival
Finally, the perfect excuse to wear the pirate Halloween costume that’s been collecting dust in your closet. Throw it on and immerse yourself in the culture of nautical thievery with sea shanties, pirate battles, cannons, and, of course, rum, among many other activities.
Saturday-Sunday, Thurston County Fairgrounds and Event Center (Olympia)
Queen Anne Days
Queen Anne Helpline presents this family-oriented community celebration with a wine, beer, and cider garden, fun run, art walk, live music, car show, doggie parade, food trucks, carnival games, crafts, the Queen Anne Running of the Bulls, and more.
Friday-Sunday, Various locations (Queen Anne)
Wallingford Parade
The Wallingford Family Parade will celebrate 70 years this year. In honor of the grand reopening of Lincoln High School, this year you’re invited to show your school spirit.
Saturday, Meridian Park (Wallingford)
West Seattle Summer Fest
For the 37th year, spend some time shopping, dancing to live music from great local bands, doing yoga in the park, dining, drinking in beer gardens, and enjoying other summery activities at this annual family-friendly festival. This year’s headliners include Jenn Champion, Polyrhythmics, Blackie, Common Market, Night Beats, Jeremy Enigk, Spirit Award, and Stas THEE Boss. The newest addition this year is a whole block of giant games like Connect Four, Jenga, Ker Plunk, Dominoes, and more.
Friday-Sunday, West Seattle Junction
CULTURE
Polish Festival Seattle
Experience the myriad traditions of Poland through food, music, arts activities, and more.
Saturday, Seattle Center
FILM
Lumberjacks & Logrollers
The forum will screen a series of Scandinavian films devoted to the humble yet heroic lumberjack, including 1923 silent The Lumberjack’s Bride (with live music), the midcentury musical Ferryboat Romance, and the Russo-Finnish epic The Day the Earth Froze.
Friday-Sunday, Northwest Film Forum (Capitol Hill)
FOOD & DRINK
14th Annual Summer Beer Taste: Beerstock
To mark a half-century since Woodstock, the Phinney Neighborhood Festival will throw a festival of their own with tastes from over 30 local microbreweries and cideries.
Saturday, Phinney Neighborhood Association
Ballard SeafoodFest
Originally started as a celebration of the neighborhood’s fishing industry in 1974, this festival has expanded over the years to include a salmon dinner, a crab shack, a beer garden replete with local craft brews like Stoup Brewing and Reuben’s Brews, food and artisan craft vendors, and music. This year’s music lineup includes Welsh alternative rock band the Joy Formidable, Portland-based singer/songwriter Kyle Craft, and Everett folk rockers the Moondoggies, among many others. Gluttons for punishment can enroll in the lutefisk eating contest, an annual competition to see who can scarf the most of the salty, gelatinous fish.
Friday-Sunday, Various locations (Ballard)
Blueberries & Blues
Get your daily dose of antioxidants by eating some blueberries—whether that be fresh off the bush or in ice cream form is up to you—and enjoy live music, face painting, and more.
Sunday, Charlotte’s Blueberry Park (Tacoma)
Kirkland Uncorked
This summer wine festival, which benefits no-kill shelter Homeward Bound Pet Adoption Center, encompasses a 21+ wine tasting garden, a “burger brawl,” and music, as well as a street fair with a boat show, a food truck feast, and other activities.
Friday-Sunday, Marina Park (Kirkland)
PROOF – Washington Distillers Festival
Washington has the third highest number of micro-distilleries in the nation. At this festival, you can sip small-batch craft spirits from more than 40 distilleries from our state, who will provide all the usual suspects, like gin, whiskey, vodka, and bourbon, as well as more obscure spirits, like aquavit, amari, grappa, absinthe, and others. Local food vendors, including restaurants like Adana, Agrodolce, and Le Coin, will provide sustenance as a ballast for all the booze.
Saturday, Fremont Studios
Seattle International Beerfest
This three-day specialty beer fest boasts everything from classic beers like pilsners and pales to anything “delicious yet shunned by the masses,” including double IPAs, barleywines, farmhouse ales, and sours, with breweries hailing from all over the world. There’s also a lush grass area on which to unfurl picnic blankets, in addition to ample indoor and outdoor seating. Deal-seekers, take note: At the Grande Beer Garden, you can grab full pints, including Pilsner Urquell, Hop Valley Citrus Mistress, and Crispin Cider Company, for just three tickets ($3) and take your pint anywhere in the park.
Friday-Sunday, Fisher Pavilion (Seattle Center)
The Stranger’s Burger Week 2019
Since 2013, The Stranger’s sister publication, the Portland Mercury, has hosted Burger Week, among the most popular seven days of the year for culinary-minded denizens of the City of Roses. Gourmands line up at beloved local establishments to try one-of-a-kind burgers created exclusively for the week—and better yet, they’re only $5 a pop. Now, for the first time ever, Seattle is getting in on the fun with The Stranger’s inaugural edition of Burger Week, featuring restaurants in neighborhoods all over the city: Ballard Brothers Seafood & Burgers/Taco Mama’s, Ben Paris, Broadfork Cafe, Coastline Burgers, Duke’s Seafood & Chowder, FareStart Restaurant and Maslow’s, JaK’s Alehouse, Loretta’s Northwesterner, Lunchbox Lab, Maritime Pacific Brewing Co. & Jolly Roger Taproom, Next Level Burger, Orfeo, Ozzie’s, the Park Pub, Star Brass Works Lounge, Teddy’s Bigger Burgers, Two Doors Down, and Zippy’s Giant Burgers. Gluten-free and vegan eaters will not be left out of the (delicious) festivities—there will be burger options for both. So go forth and chow down (and don’t forget to tip)! JULIANNE BELL
Friday-Saturday, Various locations
GEEK
Wekfest Seattle
What claims to be the “dopest car show in the nation” will return to Seattle to showcase over 350 shiny European, Japanese, and domestic aftermarket builds.
Sunday, CenturyLink Field Event Center (Downtown)
MUSIC
Columbia City Beatwalk
Head south for the Columbia City Beatwalk, a music festival for locals by locals spread out at various neighborhood venues. This weekend brings a day of hip-hop, R&B, and funk at spots like Columbia City Gallery and Backyard.
Sunday, Various locations (Columbia City)
Hot Spot
Soak up some sun on the waterfront at the Beat Masters Beat Battle hip-hop competition (Sat) and live sets from Red Eagle Soaring and We Move to Give (Sun).
Saturday-Sunday, Waterfront Park (Downtown)
Icicle Creek Chamber Music Festival
The 25th Annual Icicle Creek International Chamber Music Festival beckons, with three weekend-long sessions of musical experiences brought to you by beloved composers and world-class artists—like Dvorak, Schubert, Rachmaninoff, Crumb, and Brahms this weekend—in an intimate woodland setting.
Friday-Sunday, Icicle Creek Center for the Arts (Leavenworth)
Music in the Vines 2019
For the ninth year running, gather under the grapevines for an outdoor summer music series providing live rock, pop, soul, and Americana out on Hackett Ranch, including tonight’s Jaime Wyatt. Select Gilbert Cellars wines will be available by the glass and bottle, with local food vendors with snacks aplenty.
Friday, Gilbert Cellars Winery at Hackett Ranch (Yakima)
Olympia Free Jazz Festival
Hop around to different Olympia venues for four days of open jam zones for experimental jazz artists at this laid-back, pick-and-choose-style festival.
Friday-Sunday, Various locations (Olympia)
Olympic Music Festival
The Olympic Music Festival features classical programming almost every weekend of the summer, from works by Medtner, Prokofiev, and Tchaikovsky to Enescu, Walton, Chopin, and Dvořák.
Saturday-Sunday, Fort Worden State Park (Port Townsend)
PBJam Fest 2019
Equally billing all their artists and prioritizing loud and proud jam bands, the PBJam Fest will feature a ton of PNW groups who will bring the funk this summer (as well as the jazz and bluegrass). Participating groups will include Buzz Brump, Crack Sabbath, Fresh Track, Skerik Band, World’s Finest, Cytrus, High Pulp, Living Daylights, Swindler, Unsinkable Heavies, the High Seagrass, Spare Rib & the Bluegrass Sauce, and more.
Friday-Saturday. Nectar (Fremont)
2019 Seattle Chamber Music Society Summer Festival
The Seattle Chamber Music Society is, once again, throwing its Summer Festival, with free informal recitals and full orchestral performances for all ages throughout the month of July. The cabal of esteemed artists involved this year will include Andrew Wan, Jonathan Vinocour, Jeewon Park, Tessa Lark, Yura Lee, and many more. Plus, don’t miss the Music Under the Stars series, during which a student ensemble sets up in a park and plays to whoever shows up, often folks with picnic blankets in tow and maybe a surreptitious bottle of wine, after which Benaroya Hall pipes in whatever festival performance is happening that night.
Friday, Various locations (Downtown)
Timber! Outdoor Music Festival 2019
Timber!, Artist Home’s popular outdoor music festival thrown out in Carnation, is back for its seventh year with a very full weekend of crowd-friendly folk, rock, and pop performances, and all-ages activities like camping, kayaking, and stargazing. This year’s lineup includes San Francisco punks Oh Sees and grunge legend Mark Lanegan, and local stars like Chong the Nomad, Hibou, and Haley Heynderickx. All artists will be split between the Main Stage, the smaller and more intimate Campfire Stage, and Camp Timber for kids and group activities.
Friday-Saturday, Tolt-McDonald Park (Carnation)
PERFORMANCE
Island Shakespeare Festival
Head to Whidbey Island to see performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Winter’s Tale, and Inferno at this festival in its 10th season.
Friday-Sunday, Langley
Seattle Cuban Dance Fest
Learn to master traditional Cuban dances from skilled instructors at this three-day workshop series.
Friday-Saturday, Meany Center for the Performing Arts (University District)
Seattle Outdoor Theater Festival 2019
Theater is alive in Seattle, but, as in most places, it generally isn’t cheap. GreenStage, Theater Schmeater, and Wooden O Productions set out to change that in 2001 with the first Outdoor Theater Festival. Watch Shakespeare plays and more contemporary pieces from the festival’s founders and other theater companies—a total of nine, also including Shakespeare Northwest, Last Leaf Productions, the 14/48 Projects, Dacha Theatre, Freehold Theater, and Young Shakespeare Workshop, plus aerial performances by Versatile Arts—over what will hopefully be a sunny weekend.
Saturday-Sunday, Volunteer Park (Capitol Hill)
QUEER
Tacoma Pride
Keep Pride going at Tacoma’s LGBTQ-centered festival, which will fill downtown with vendors, host an outdoor family-friendly party, and sponsor cultural events.
Friday-Sunday, Various locations (Tacoma)
