Live and in-person: 2022 Irrigation Festival

After two years of virtual events, Sequim’s biggest civic celebration is going live.

The 127th-annual Sequim Irrigation Festival, touted as the longest-running community fest in Washington state, got its start in full on Saturday, March 19, at the 7 Cedars Resort in Blyn.

“We had a great turnout; we sold out,” festival director Julianne Coonts said. “We were a little worried about that being in-person this year, but everybody was really excited to be out.

“It started off with a bang.”

See more photos here.

The royalty court — including queen Isabella Williams and princesses Katherine Gould, Ellie Turner and Lauren Willis — got their first look at the festival float sporting the theme, “Our Little Piece of Heaven.”

Longtime float builder Guy Horton introduced the float Saturday, lauding his wife Lynn Horton’s concept and artist Natalie Martin’s artwork on the float’s backdrop.

“She (Lynn) had several iterations of it, and we got the band back together one more time,” Guy Horton said of the float’s construction.

“Anyone who’s been out on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, we see these colors,” Horton said.

Float builders had a number of challenges, he said, from a broken cable and oversized design to a broken generator.

This float, he noted, was put together since the second week of January.

“This was a fast, fast build,” Horton said.

The float unveiling was followed by the fest’s annual Kickoff Dinner & Auction.

“It’s been a weird couple of years,” Coonts said Saturday to a packed house inside the 7 Cedars Resort ballroom. There, attendees bid on live auction items as well as in an online silent auction to raise thousands of dollars required to run the festival.

Coonts said Monday that while organizers are still tallying the totals, this year’s kickoff event raised more than $40,000. Those funds go toward a number of fixed expenses, from insurance and permits to float construction and travel costs _ such as the royalty’s and float’s first appearance, Tacoma’s Daffodil Parade, on April 9.

She said she’s excited about the float appearing at a festival in Victoria, B.C. this year.

“That’s a really good one for us; (it) creates a lot of exposure,” she said.

The kickoff event included a first: the auctioning of a commemorative queen’s pin named for longtime Sequim businessman and philanthropist Bill Littlejohn, who died in December 2019.

Festival officials also honored several dignitaries, including Grand Pioneers Bonnie (Wheeler) Hagberg and Donald Stone, Honorary Pioneers Shirley (Govan) Lehman and Rodger Petroff, and Grand Marshals Setphen and Kim Rosales. They also lauded the artwork of 2022 festival button contest winner Kendall Adolphe, a fifth-grader at Helen Haller Elementary School.

Events on tap

Following the royalty pageant, held Feb. 26, and Saturday’s kickoff dinner and auction, the 2022 Irrigation Festival begins in full with Crazy Callen Weekend from May 6-8. Events include: Crazy Daze Breakfast for Dinner, 6-8 p.m. Friday, across from Sequim Civic Center, 157 W. Cedar St.); First Friday Art Walk Sequim, 5-8 p.m. Friday, various downtown locations; Sequim High School operetta, “Emma: A Pop Musical,” 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday; Kids Parade, 9 a.m. Saturday, 100 block of West Washington Street; Family Fun Day, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, 100 block of West Washington Street, and Innovative Arts and Crafts Fair, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, Sequim Civic Center.

The festival concludes with the Grand Finale Weekend, May 12-15. Events include: Past Royalty Luncheon (invite only); Historic Walking Tour, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Thursday, Sequim Civic Center; golf tournament, noon Friday, Sunland Golf & County Club; Firework show, dusk on Friday, at Blake property just south of Carrie Blake Community Park, 202 N. Blake Ave.; Logging Show, noon-dusk Friday and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Blake property; Fun Run, 11 a.m. Saturday, starting at Sequim Village Center, 651 W. Washington St.; SHS operetta (same show days, times as previous weekend, as well as May 20-22 performances), and the Grand Parade, noon on Saturday, through downtown Sequim.

“We’re excited to have (the Grand Parade) back,” kickoff dinner emcee James Castell said.

Coonts said the Grand Parade will look to honor essential workers, selected as Sequim’s Citizen of the Year during the 2020 pandemic year.

“We felt like it would be fitting (to honor them),” she said.

One activity not included in this year’s events is the annual carnival, traditionally held on West Fir Street between Sequim High School and Helen Haller Elementary.

“We’re trying to bring back as much as we can,” Coonts said Saturday, but carnival organizers were not able to find enough team members to bring to carnival to Sequim.

For more information about the festival, see irrigationfestival.com.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell 2022 Sequim Irrigation Festival royalty prepare to see the festival float for the first time at the Kickoff Dinner & Auction at 7 Cedars Resort in Blyn on March 19. Pictured, from left, are princesses Katherine Gould, Lauren Willis and Ellie Turner, and queen Isabella Williams.

Emcee James Castell introduces the 2022 Irrigation Festival royalty court to the crowd at Saturday’s Kickoff Dinner & Auction. Pictured with Castell, from left, are queen Isabella Williams and princesses Ellie Turner, Katherine Gould and Lauren Willis. Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell