Sequim celebrates Independence Day with another full day of music, food, and fun leading up to a fireworks finale in Carrie Blake Community Park.
It’s the third year of free festivities as a joint effort between the City of Sequim, Sequim Arts Commission, KSQM 91.5 FM and the Sequim City Band
Events begin at 3 p.m. Tuesday, July 4, with the Sequim City Band performing its annual “Patriotic 4th of July Concert” at the James Center for the Performing Arts inside the Water Reuse Site, 500 N. Blake Ave.
It will feature a color guard presentation by the Dungeness Unit of the Cadet Color Guard of the Civil Air Patrol.
Also starting at 3 p.m. Janine Miller offers a free Luminary Workshop “Let Your Little Light Shine,” as supplies last. It was rescheduled from the Sequim Sunshine Festival, organizers said.
Vendors also begin at 3 p.m. with Cedars at Dungeness hosting a beer and wine garden, along with Sequim Valley Lions Club’s hot dog cart, Ulivo Pizzeria, Nomad Coffee, Cay Sal Frozen Pies, and NW Cold Treats offering food and beverage for purchase.
The Buck Ellard Band plays from 5:30-7 p.m., and Black Diamond Junction from 8-10 p.m. at the bandshell. KSQM will broadcast live between music acts and during the fireworks show.
The 15-minute fireworks show from Western Fireworks Display begins at 10 p.m. They’ll shoot fireworks from the Albert Haller Fields.
Organizers say the fireworks display costs the city about $18,800 with funding from the city’s Lodging Tax Fund and Parks fund.
Attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and blankets to enjoy music at the outdoor venue.
Other amenities include horseshoe pits, bocce ball court, shuffleboard, gardens, off-leash dog park, pickleball courts, playground, ponds, and more.
Parking is available in the park, at Trinity United Methodist Church, along Blake Avenue, at Olympic View Church on Brown Road, and in the QFC parking lot.
City band breaks out the stars and stripes
The Sequim City Band presents its traditional “A Patriotic 4th of July Concert” at 3 p.m.
In honor of the occasion, the Cadet Color Guard of the Dungeness Unit of the Civil Air Patrol presents colors. Vocalist and colonial reenactor Karla Morgan will lead the audience in the singing of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner” and present the program notes.
Photo by Richard Greenway/Sequim City Band / Trumpets and trombones play out “The Stars and Stripes Forever” at the 2022 Sequim City Band’s Fourth of July concert in 2022.
Concert-goers will be treated to arrangements of “America, the Beautiful” and “Shenandoah,” a medley of Rodgers and Hammerstein show tunes, a fugue based on the Revolutionary tune “Yankee Doodle” and the band’s traditional salute to past and current service personnel with a medley of military service songs in “Armed Forces Salute.” There also will be well-known patriotic marches by Henry Fillmore and John Philip Sousa.
Get more information about the Sequim City Band at sequimcityband.org.
Fireworks banned in city
The fireworks show and celebration follows the City of Sequim’s ban of the discharge of consumer fireworks in the city limits in 2018 following city residents’ advisory vote in Nov. 2017.
Organizers said this show is intended as a community celebration and to discourage the unlawful discharge of other fireworks.
Legal, consumer fireworks are allowed to be discharged from 9 a.m.-midnight on July 4 in unincorporated Clallam County east of the Elwha River unless there is a period of fire danger, according to the county’s code.
Clallam County fire marshal George Bailey said the only time fireworks are banned on the Fourth of July in unincorporated Clallam County is when the Industrial Fire Protection Level (IFPL) is at level 3, but he doesn’t foresee banning fireworks because it’s only at level 1.
