 |
Festival Schedule and Map |
|
Participate in our Festival |
|
Join us as a Festival Sponsor |
|
How to get to the Festival |
(Our 2004 poster will be on sale at the Festival for only $10!)
28th
Annual
Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival
"Experience
the Craft"
July 3, 4 & 5, 2004 (Saturday - Monday)
10 a.m. - 6 p.m. each day
The Center for Wooden Boats holds a 3-day Fourth of July festival on Lake Union each year that attracts some 15,000 participants.
The theme is heritage wooden boats. The ambiance is that of an old-fashioned, down-home waterfront festival where everything is fun, almost everything is free and nothing much is fancy. It's as authentically grassroots American as you can get and has been for the last 27 years.
If it's at the festival, you can probably touch it, try it or do it. Experience maritime culture first hand. It's a hands-on festival right in the center of the city, in the summer, on a bustling lake.
Families come down in droves because everything can be done by young and old together - toy boat building, sailing model boats on the pond, boat rides and races, picnicking, clambering over boats big and small, festive food and music, and general joy.
Over the last 27 years, the festival has developed into a gem of the Seattle Summer. We hope you'll join us.
What's new in 2004?
More people!
Free admission (donations still happily accepted!!)
More neighbors!
The South Lake Union neighborhood is changing rapidly and everyone's invited.
New wharf!
A chance to see South Lake Union Park's new wharf in action.
More family
activities!
Lots of exhibits where families and individuals can go for a boat ride or
"experience the craft" of boatbuilding and maritime skills.
A Northwest
focus.
All types of exhibits which reflect the broad spectrum of Northwest maritime
culture.
Experience Maritime Culture Firsthand
Free Boat Rides - Ride in a steam launch, row or go for a sail.
Captain Kid's Corner - Kids and their parents and grandparents and friends work together to build toy boats.
Model Boat Pond - Watch vintage model pond boats sail (Northwest designed) or launch one yourself.
Family Boatbuilding - Build a boat with your family, or just sit back and watch the boats come together. Our Festival Boat Building Class is already full but you can add your name for a future class.
Walk the Docks - Some 150 classic wooden boats, ranging from schooners to rowboats to elegant sedan cruisers converge once a year for the Festival. View them, talk to their owners - you may be invited aboard! Or if you are the proud owner of one of these beauties, bring her down so we can admire her.
Experience the Craft - Learn from others. Talk with experienced boat builders, view their wares, or try your hand at caulking a seam or steaming a plank.
Sea Stories - Special presentations and tales of the sea. Learn about making the movie Pirates of the Caribbean. Hear first-hand stories of Northwest classic boats being brought back to life with recent restorations. Or sit down, put up your feet and enjoy a favorite movie of the sea.
Quick and Daring - The Quick & Daring contestents have one day in which to build a boat at the festival... and then they have to race it, sailing on one leg of the race, paddling on another, and anything goes on the final leg.
Foc'sle Music Stage, Crew's Mess and the Pewter Pig Pub - Naturally, we offer folksy music, festive food and a beer garden!
Boat Races - Watch elegant wooden boats race against the backdrop of a summer day and the Seattle skyline. [we could link to a regatta sign up sheet, if Vern would like to add that]
Knot Here, Right Now - We teach knots to anyone who drops in... Knots for boats, for tying down trailer loads, for household use, for decoration, for fun... Always popular.
Hall of Northwest Maritime Culture - View original small craft from the Northwest and a whole range of exhibits from many Northwest historical organizations.
Virginia V - Visit the Virginia V, a national historic landmark - the last operating wooden-hull steam vessel of the famed Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet.
Maritime Products Mart - Looking for a unique tool? Shopping for a tender? Wood for your next boatbuilding project? Handmade hats from Australia? A particular book? You'll find a unique range of products at the festival.
Uniquely Northwest - Special signage throughout the show will direct your attention to the small crafts and exhibits which are uniquely Northwest.
