Irrigation fest turns 119

Rain almost dampened some spirits for the Sequim Irrigation Festival’s Grand Finale weekend but Sequim’s sun persevered.

Rain almost dampened some spirits for the Sequim Irrigation Festival’s Grand Finale weekend but Sequim’s sun persevered.

From May 2-11, the 119th Sequim Irrigation Festival’s “Mountains to Sea … A Pristine Place to Be” continued the annual favorites from the carnival to the logging show to the operetta.

“It turned out great,” said festival chairman Deon Kapetan. “Even the golf tournament (on Friday at Sunland Golf & Country Club) where everyone got a little wet. But Saturday and Sunday went great.”

The street filling Grand Parade on May 10 featured 122 entries from across the area.

Organizer Eileen Cummings said volunteers worked really hard to help everything run smoothly.

“The clue to me it went well, I didn’t hear a complaint,” she said.

The Thunder Roll Car Show N’ Shine had 130 entries in the show and 86 of those in the parade prior to the Grand Parade.

Fourteen-year-old Gracie Long won the the Dungeness River Fun Run Saturday morning outrunning all competitors with a time of 19:38.

For the 26th year the Logging Show saw plenty of chopping and climbing with Brian Bartow winning three events — open underhand chop, tree climbing and tree topping — while Mike Forrester took first in the springboard chop and singlebuck events and Nick VanBrocklin won the intermediate underhand chop and obstacle pole bucking. Kapetan said the first weekend festivities went well too and while it’s early they’ll likely do things similarly to this year.

The 120th festival with the tagline “120 fun aplenty” takes place May 1-10, 2015.

The festival’s royalty and their float travels next to the the Port Townsend Rhododendron Festival on Saturday, May 17. For more information on the festival and a full list of results from the festivities, visit irrigationfestival.com.