This is the corner of the state where summer arrives by ferry. Over the next two weeks the mainland gets the festivals, the islands get the solstice, and one state park gets a sing-along intended for an audience of whales.
Mainland: two festivals, two generations
The brand-new one: Faire du Well, a Skagit Valley Renaissance faire at the county fairgrounds on Saturday the 13th. The institution: Berry Dairy Days in Burlington hits its 89th year starting Friday the 19th at Skagit River Park, free. The same weekend, Christianson's Nursery holds its Rose Festival and the fairgrounds turn around to host the Skagit Garden and Art Fair.
Islands: solstice done properly
Orcas Island owns the weekend of the 20th — the Summer Solstice Parade rolls through Eastsound with celebration on both Saturday and Sunday, free. The night before that weekend, Orcas Center hosts a Community Band Concert (the 19th), with an Antidote Dance Party on the 20th. Down on San Juan Island, Saturday evening the 20th offers the most quietly extraordinary listing of the month: Orca Sing at Lime Kiln Point State Park, 7 p.m., free — a chorus at the whale-watching lighthouse. Anacortes adds its Pride Parade Sunday the 21st.
Music, room by room
Anacortes' Rockfish Grill is the steadiest stage in the region — Manieri Jazz presents Jun Iida on the 11th, the Fat Fridays on the 13th, Tod Kimbro on the 17th, the Dana Osborn Band on the 20th. The Derina Harvey Band plays San Juan Community Theatre Saturday the 13th. Oak Harbor's free Buskers on the Corner series runs Friday evenings — Lauren Flynn on the 12th, ShiDaa's West African music on the 19th. And the Village Green's free Weekly Summer Concert Series holds Sunday evenings at five.
Stages and galleries
Whidbey runs theater in parallel: the Whidbey Playhouse stages Little Shop of Horrors Friday nights while WICA premieres Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest as a staged reading. Salish Sea Ballet dances Firebird at San Juan Community Theatre on the 11th, and the Skagit Pops play "The Final Frontier" at McIntyre Hall Sunday the 14th. On the art side, the San Juan Islands Museum of Art opens its summer exhibitions — Imogen Cunningham among them — and the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner throws a free Opening Soirée for its summer shows Saturday the 20th, after hosting Art Under the Stars on the 13th.
The Saturday markets carry on regardless: Anacortes at the Depot Arts Center, La Conner at the marina, Mount Vernon downtown — free, rain shadow weather usually cooperating.