We’re in for another supremely sunny weekend, and festivals of all kinds promise entertainment for foodies, families, music lovers, and pretty much everyone else. We’ve compiled all of this weekend’s options below, from food & drink events like Bite of Seattle to cultural experiences like the Japanese Bon Odori Festival, and from road-trip-worthy happenings like Sequim Lavender Weekend to the live music-filled Capitol Hill Block Party.
ARTS
Des Moines Arts Festival and Waterland Parade
The park will host an arts and crafts market, a Waterland Parade, kids’ activities, and more.
Saturday-Sunday, Des Moines Beach Park
Renegade Craft Fair
Renegade Craft Fair (“the largest independent craft fair in the world”) will return to Seattle, bringing along a few hundred makers selling their wares, conducting DIY workshops, vending food and drinks, and more.
Saturday-Sunday, Magnuson Park Hangar 30
COMMUNITY
Covington Days
Covington’s summer festival features a parade, carnival games, arts and crafts, a watermelon-eating contest, and more family-friendly activities.
Saturday-Sunday, Covington
The King County Fair
This annual summer festival promises live music, vendors, food, 4-H classes, and more.
Friday-Sunday, Enumclaw Expo Center
Olde Burien Block Party
Burien will close its main downtown street to make way for live music and a beer garden.
Saturday, Downtown Burien
North Bend Downtown Block Party
Breathe in some fresh Snoqualmie River air at this all-day block party replete with food, vendors, family activities. There will also be dance and martial arts performances, live music from bands like Creme Tangerine, Petty Differences, Spike and the Impalers, and LocoMotive, and adoptable creatures from PUP Dog Rescue.
Saturday, Downtown North Bend
West Seattle Grand Parade
This annual parade has been happening since 1935, and includes pirates, clowns, marching bands, drill teams, floats, members of Hi-Yu royalty, and other general pageantry.
Saturday, West Seattle
White Center Jubilee Days
White Center’s long-running Seafair event features a street fair with local vendors and food purveyors, a main stage with live acts, a beer garden, a car show, a parade, and a carnival.
Friday-Sunday, White Center
Vashon Island Strawberry Festival
Vashon Island will celebrate its 109th Strawberry Festival with a grand parade, a classic car show, live music, vendors, an “alternative carnival,” a pancake breakfast, and more.
Friday-Sunday, Vashon
CULTURE
Bon Odori Festival
For Bon Odori, or Obon, Japanese Buddhists commemorate their ancestors through ceremony and dance. Seattle’s festival, officially part of Seafair, will line the street with food booths, showcase taiko drumming and martial arts, and provide arts and crafts demonstrations.
Saturday-Sunday, Seattle Buddhist Church (Central District)
Chinatown Parade
See lion and dragon dances, a performance from the Seattle Chinese Girls Drill Team, and other local community groups at Chinatown’s annual parade.
Sunday, Wing Luke Museum (Chinatown-International District)
Kla Ha Ya Days Festival
This festival celebrates Snohomish’s native community and cultural history with a carnival, a kids’ fair, a grand parade, and a car show.
Friday-Sunday, Harvey Field (Snohomish)
Natsu Matsuri Outdoor Summer Festival
Enjoy live entertainment, eating contests, games, and over 15 food booths at this annual festival in Chinatown.
Saturday-Sunday, Uwajimaya (Chinatown-International District)
Seafair Indian Days Pow Wow
Join the United Tribes of All Indians in the 31st annual festival of music, dance, and food. Snack on some frybread, buy art from Native vendors, see the pow wow dancing, and join in during the Intertribal part of the festivities.
Friday-Sunday, Daybreak Star Center (Magnolia)
FOOD & DRINK
Albert Lee Appliance Bite of Seattle
Year-round, Seattle is filled with festivals devoted to niche food and drink offerings, but if there’s one event that everyone knows about, it’s the Bite of Seattle, a free event at Seattle Center that’s been going strong since 1982 and claims to attract more than 400,000 guests annually. Seattle’s “original & largest food and beverage showcase” rounds up food from more than 60 restaurants and pop-up vendors, offering everything from specialty popsicles and pad thai to Korean fried chicken and Shishkaberry’s. There’s also craft beer and cider tastings, a restaurant showcase benefiting Food Lifeline, live cooking demonstrations, and cook-off battles on the “Bite Cooks” stage. And when you can’t eat anymore, head to the free outdoor movie night on Friday (featuring A League of Their Own) or one of three music stages for bands like Marina and the Dreamboats, Everson Pines, and the Hamilton Tribute Band.
Friday-Sunday, Seattle Center
Bremerton Summer BrewFest
Hop on a ferry to Bremerton to taste more than 100 fruit-infused craft beers from 36 Washington breweries. While you sip, enjoy live music and food.
Friday-Saturday, Bremerton Boardwalk
Second Annual Anderson Summer School Brewfest
School’s out for summer, but you can seek out some extracurricular edification at this beer festival with 59 handcrafted ales and eight ciders from McMenamins as well as local guest breweries and cideries. Admission is free, and multiple bands will provide live music.
Saturday, McMenamins Anderson School (Bothell)
Tacoma Food Truck Festival
Head to the South Sound to feast on cuisines of all kinds, from Original House of Donuts to Kama’aina Grill.
Sunday, Wright Park (Tacoma)
Walla Walla Sweet Onion Festival
The official Washington State vegetable can make you cry on a dime, but it also adds character to almost any savory dish, just like a true heartbreaker. This annual festival along downtown Walla Walla’s Main Street hosts onion growers, BBQ cook-offs, a farmers market, a fun run, a grape stomp (Walla Walla’s famous for its wine, too), a classic car show, and more.
Saturday, Walla Walla
GEEK
FHCAM SkyFair
Vintage aircraft will cruise through the skies as military tanks roam the grounds. After you get an eyeful of those, catch a screening of Disney’s Moana and graze from food trucks.
Saturday, Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum (Everett)
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)
KIDS
Parkadilly Kids’ Concert & Fair
Kids can groove along to live performances by Recess Monkey, the Not Its, Rhythms of India, and African dance Troupe Gansango, bond with animals in a petting zoo, take an REI wilderness survival workshop for kids, make arts and crafts, and check out “kid-centric vendors.”
Sunday, Sammamish River Park (Bothell)
MUSIC
Capitol Hill Block Party 2018
Capitol Hill Block Party is a large-scale weekend music festival that originally started as a charming neighborhood get-together and has since morphed into a massive spectacle of Top-40 headliners and Seattle heavy hitters converging during the dog days of summer in the Pike/Pine corridor. You can get all the info you need, including staff recommendations, on our Capitol Hill Block Party calendar.
Friday-Sunday, Capitol Hill
Darrington Bluegrass Festival 2018
The Darrington Bluegrass Festival has been going strong for 42 years running, with a lineup of live bluegrass jams, food, booze, and vendor booths, all set against the natural backdrop of beautiful Darrington. This year’s headliners include Dave Adkins, Band of Ruhks, Volume Five, Sister Sadie, and many others.
Friday-Sunday, Darrington Bluegrass Music Park (Arlington)
Jazz Port Townsend Festival
Here is what you have to do: drive down to the ferry dock, drive onto a ferry, cross the bay on this ferry, exit the ferry, drive across the island, cross some bridges, stop at a gas station for something fried, salty, and not good for you, eventually enter Port Townsend, and, before heading to Fort Worden State Park, admire a number of the town’s Victorian-style homes. When you finally park your car in the pretty park, roll down your window and listen to jazz music from the Jazz Port Townsend Festival in the sun-brightened air. Cars were not made for the city, but for short trips like this. CHARLES MUDEDE
Sunday, McCurdy Pavilion at Fort Worden State Park (Port Townsend)
NATURE
Farm Fest
Get a taste of farm life with cooking and gardening demonstrations (including blueberry picking and spring roll-making) self-guided tours, and more on the Rainier Beach property. Local businesses will serve up refreshments, and there will be live music.
Saturday, Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands (Rainier Valley)
Sequim Lavender Weekend
Sequim, a city nestled in a “rain shadow” of the Olympics, receives about the same amount of rain each year as Los Angeles. We assume this is the reason its fields are particularly abundant with fragrant lavender in the summertime. Take a weekend to visit its farms and nurseries to reap the bounties of the purple plant.
Friday-Sunday, Sequim
