Yellow Pages
LA CONNER — Mom and Dad may enjoy spending several hours perusing through booths of colorful and evocative art.
But chances are, their kids won’t.
So organizers of this year’s La Conner Summer Street Fair — from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, June 28, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, June 29 — have beefed up the children’s activities, enlisting the help of the Boys & Girls Club of Skagit County and the Museum of Northwest Art to provide more games and fun.
Youngsters who visit the children’s area in the parking lot of Nasty Jack’s Antiques can expect some storytelling by a local merchant, fish rubbings hosted by the Museum of Northwest Art, and other games and art — including face-painting, a bean-bag toss, fish toss, decorating pirate hats and buttons — courtesy of the La Conner Boys & Girls Club.
“This is something that they (kids) can feel like they’re part of the central activity,” said Marci Plank, executive director of the La Conner Chamber of Commerce, which organizes the event.
Meanwhile, adults can peruse the 35 arts booths that will be set up along Morris Street between First and Third streets. Artists from across the Pacific Northwest will showcase a wide variety of juried art, including photographs, paintings, ceramics, jewelry, soaps, silkscreens, woodcarvings and more.
The chamber solicited art entries and a panel of local artists judged each of the entries, Plank said.
Merchants in town also plan to take part in the sidewalk sale during the event. Restaurants and cafés will offer everything from quick, tasty snacks to mouthwatering regional cuisine.
“We don’t have any food booths this year; we’re highlighting our local restaurants,” Plank said.
While visitors leisurely check out the art and goods for sale, they’ll be entertained by music by local performers Howlin’ Lane Fernando and the Angels of Sin, Marcia Kester and Ranger & the Rearrangers at Gilkey Square and Dirty Biter Park.
This is the fifth year for the festival that started as an attempt to usher in the summer tourist season in La Conner, Plank said.
As the $4.6 million Morris Street construction project drew to a close in 2003, merchants and residents wanted a way to celebrate the reopening of the street and the end of months of delays, detours and, for some of them, major losses in revenue, Plank explained.
The event has evolved during the past few years, and even sparked controversy when some of the merchants complained about organizers blocking off First Street and inviting vendors into town to compete with local merchants.
“If merchants say, ‘This doesn’t work for me,’ we try to look at it (complaints) and make accommodations and make it better,” Plank said.
