Members of the Sequim Irrigation Festival’s board of directors and ambassadors with the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce came together Jan. 28 to honor efforts to spruce up the festival’s float barn on Fifth Avenue.

Kevin Kapetan, project manager, said volunteers stripped paint, put on new primer and paint, and replaced broken windows while the barn’s owner Bill Littlejohn had a new roof installed.

Littlejohn said festival volunteers have used the barn about 25 years for float construction and that it used to be a part of the Thompson Farm with the upstairs used as a playroom and the bottom as a shop for farm equipment.

His father Robert Littlejohn purchased it in 1971.

Present for the ribbon cutting were volunteers and representatives from different agencies, including Randy and Sallie Radock, Sherwin Williams Sequim, Jeff Gumm, David Blakeslee, Joel Ogden, the Sequim Valley Lions, Stephen and Kim Rosales, Lynn Horton, Home Depot, the Irrigation Festival Royalty — Queen Victoria Hall, Princesses Dana Nguyen, Tatum Jensen, Hailey Kapetan, and Deb and Craig Palmer.

This year’s float for the festival’s 122nd year is unveiled at 4:45 p.m. Saturday, March 25, before the Kick-Off Dinner and Auction at 7 Cedars Casino.

The festival, running May 5-15, also received top prize for the Pacific Northwest’s A-List by City Voter for the Best Small Town Celebration over 62 other events with more than 2,000 votes cast. Sequim won the award the year before, too. For more information, visit http://pacificnw.cityvoter.com.

For more information on the festival, visit www.irrigationfestival.com.