SUMMER STARTS: 32nd annual Washington Summer Festival opens tonight

Published 7:14 pm Thursday, June 11, 2015

DAILY NEWS IN THE GOOD OL’ SUMMERTIME: Rides, amusements, games and vendors open for business at 5 p.m. at the Washington Summer Festival. Tonight’s events feature The Embers at 7 p.m. and fireworks at 9 p.m.

DAILY NEWS
IN THE GOOD OL’ SUMMERTIME: Rides, amusements, games and vendors open for business at 5 p.m. at the Washington Summer Festival. Tonight’s events feature The Embers at 7 p.m. and fireworks at 9 p.m.

Though the official start of summer isn’t until June 21, Washington rings in the season with music, fireworks and more at the 32nd annual Washington Summer Festival.

Slated to open today at 5 p.m., the festival will feature games, rides and amusements spread down the waterfront Stewart Parkway. At 7 p.m., beach music legends The Embers, featuring reinstated frontman and Washington native Craig Woolard, will take the stage at Festival Park until 9 p.m. The performance will be followed by fireworks over the Pamlico River.

On Saturday, the festivities start over again, this time including one of three sanctified DockDogs competitions in the U.S., at the corner of Stewart Parkway and West Main Street. The night wraps up at Festival Park with performances by rock band K-OS and country rockers The Mikele Buck Band.

If past numbers are anything to go by, over 30,000 people will visit the Washington waterfront over the weekend, according to Catherine Glover, executive director of the Washington-Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce.

Over the past several years, the Chamber has started to shape the festival, bringing more of a hometown focus to the weekend by encouraging local artisans and nonprofits to participate and shifting the ride selection to more kid-friendly options, which was a matter of choice and matter of a changing Washington waterfront, Glover said.

“It used to be that we were at Festival Park when nothing was there and there was a lot more space. Before, it was just blank, and they filled that whole area with rides,” Glover said. “We just don’t have space for anymore, and we try to keep (rides) geared toward the younger, but we do have some stuff for older kids and teens.”

Also catering to the older children and teens is a new entertainment at this year’s summer festival: Little Washington Sailing School volunteers will be taking kids out for free boat rides. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, anyone ages 10 to 18 can hop aboard for a short sail on the Pamlico River.

The finals for the DockDogs competition will be held Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

See schedule for more event listings.