The peninsula's June argument: nowhere else does a national headliner, a steampunk festival, and a logging tour share a weekend without anyone finding it strange. The next two weeks are the strongest stretch of the season so far.
The weekend of the 12th is the big one
Bonnie Raitt plays McCurdy Pavilion at Fort Worden on Friday June 12 — the kind of booking that empties the rest of the calendar, except the rest of the calendar didn't get the memo. The Brass Screw Consortium, Port Townsend's steampunk festival, runs the same weekend, capped by its Hootenanny at the American Legion hall Saturday night. Saturday also brings the Port Angeles Farmers Market's 25th anniversary celebration, the free Summertide Solstice Art Festival at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, Field Day — a free public party at Field Arts & Events Hall — and the Fjordin Crossin at the Port of Hoodsport. Sequim's own Olympic Theatre Arts opens Urinetown Friday with shows through Sunday.
Music in unlikely rooms
The peninsula specializes in shows where you least expect them. Bread & Gravy play a creamery's 20th anniversary party Saturday the 13th (Dungeness Valley Creamery, 1 p.m.). The Quilcene Lantern hosts a swing dance with Jonathan Doyle's trio Friday the 12th, then Live Life Loud Saturday afternoon, then Lucy Clearwater on the 21st. 7 Cedars keeps its free weekend sets going — Supernostalgic on the 12th, Benni James on the 13th, Topia Vana on the 20th. And Port Townsend's Pub Sing at Taps at the Guardhouse (Tuesday the 16th, free) remains the most participatory ticket in town, in that there is no ticket.
Solstice weekend, the gentler one
Saturday the 20th: Brinnon ShrimpFest on Hood Canal and the Summertide festival's second wind at the Fine Arts Center. Sunday the 21st: the Summer Solstice Makers Market at Finnriver Farm & Cidery, free, plus Fat Ferdie & the Stolen Sweets at Olympic Theatre Arts — and Craft in Public at the Fine Arts Center if you'd rather make than watch. Tuesday after, Sequim's free Music in the Park series opens with an 80s rewind at the James Center Bandshell.
Worth knowing about
The free "Field Notes" exhibition hangs at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center through the stretch, with Wine & Words featuring Mary Lou Sanelli on the 18th. Centrum at Fort Worden shows Folk Masters, Tom Pich's portraits of America's folk artists, and its Voice Works faculty concert on the 25th is the insiders' pick — the teachers always show off. And yes: the Forks logging and mill tours run free most Wednesdays and Fridays, which is the most peninsula sentence in this report.