By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – The 21st Annual Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival in Port Angeles is coming back in all its glory on Friday, October 7 through Sunday the 9th.
Because of the pandemic, the 2020 festival was cancelled, and lasts year’s event was presented in an abbreviated form, so organizers are thrilled to be able to put on a festival that’s bigger and better than ever.
But not everything about the pandemic was bad. As we hear from festival Executive Director Scott Nagel, it also presented some valuable lessons.
“Well, what happened is, the Covid…of course, there’s positive things out of every disaster. So, by having to rearrange last year, we discovered some new things and different ways to do things. So, we’ve incorporated some of last year’s changes into this year. And one of them is that the tent is more spaced out, more room, less seating, so it’ll be a lot more comfortable. We have a couple of major food trailers out on the streets, and then the Gateway is continuing as the First Federal Gateway, “The Claw”. So we’ve got food, we’ve got a stage, which we never had before, so we have music and also a wine and beer garden.”
As for the crab situation, Nagel says they have to be careful not to overorder from the fishermen, so if you snooze, you might lose.
“We have to be careful not to over order because the crab are really expensive, even to us. So we’re encouraging people to get your crab dinners in advance online. It’s possible we will run out, depending on the weather, the crowd. So, I would say, if you’re coming on Sunday and want to grab dinner, it would probably be good to order that in advance.”
Our next question for Nagel was meant for the locals. If he had friends or family in town, when would he tell them to go, out of all 3 days.
“Oh, I’m glad you asked that question because I was about to say that. The Coho is back from Canada, Canadians are very excited, and it looks like the Coho is going to be full all three days. So, basically, what I wanted to advise everybody is, don’t come eat crab dinners in the main tent between noon to 2, because that’s when the Coho crowd is there.”
Nagel’s going to be a busy man for the next couple of weeks, but he had one last thing he wanted to mention before he went.
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“One thing that’s short everywhere is volunteers. So we could use help. Four hour shifts, helping customers, line management. We actually have, on our online ticket sales, have people coming right now from 17 different states, coming to town specifically for the Crab Festival. So that is a pretty great demonstration of how far and wide people want to come to get fresh Dungeness crab. Because, unless you get it yourself, you almost never get fresh Dungeness crab.”
Tickets and information at www.crabfestival.org. E-mail your questions to info@crabfestival.org, or phone 360-452-6300.