West Seattle’s biggest party of the year – Summer Fest – starts Friday, after a pre-funk in the closed Junction streets on Thursday night. Since our first preview of Summer Fest Eve, we’ve heard of two more reasons to be there:

‘BEYOND THE LENS: On Thursday night, legendary Seattle music photographer Lance Mercer will be at Easy Street Records, where a mini-doc about him will premiere, ESR’s Matt Vaughan tells us:

Ryan Cory is the director of the film, “Beyond The Lens.” Ryan is one of Seattle’s great videographers, editors, and storytellers. He’s directed pieces for Brandi Carlile, The Head and The Heart, Orville Peck, Pearl Jam, and of course Easy Street, Thunder Road Guitars, and the West Seattle Junction. When Ryan asked me what should he be his next film, his next project, muse, etc… without hesitation, I said, ”It’s time for Lance Mercer to shine, to be recognized for all he’s done for this city and the bands he helped elevate and the scene he helped create…and still creates …. and he lives in West Seattle. He’s elusive, let me get him for you, the story must be told.”

The premiere screening is expected to start around 7:30 pm. Matt adds, “This will be the debut of the Easy Street projector/screen.” And if you visit Easy Street, you’ll see more classic music photography – Charles Peterson‘s exhibit continues. Plus: “DJ Marc Muller from Emerald City Social Club will be the DJ thru the night.”

And right across Alaska from Easy Street:

AURORA AVE.: Along with previously announced music – West Seattle band Aurora Avenue will be playing on California Avenue during Summer Fest Eve. From band member Henry Parker:

We will be playing off and on from 5:30-6:50 and 7:20-7:45 and (Art Walk) is 5-8. We have a large set list of our own originals and crowd-pleaser covers. We’ll also be selling our own merchandise at the event. We’ll be playing directly across the street from Easy Street Records outside Key Bank, and the Junction main drag on California Ave. will be shut down to traffic to provide lots of dancing and watching space :)

California north of Oregon will close sometime Thursday morning, and then the rest of the festival zone – California between Oregon and Edmunds, and Alaska between 42nd and 44th – closes around 4 pm Thursday afternoon; the closure continues until Summer Fest breakdown and cleanup ends late Sunday/early Monday.

West Seattle Summer Fest is now exactly one week away – starting next Friday (July 14th)!

One of the signature features will be the Kids Zone, featuring inflatables. The West Seattle Junction Association is hiring helpers 15+ to “watch the inflatables and control how many kids are going in at a time.” Pay is $17/hour, with four shifts open:

Friday 1-8

Saturday 10-3 and 3-8

Sunday 10-5

Interested? Contact chris@wsjunction.org

P.S. Aside from the inflatables, which require tickets, the Kids Zone will offer free activities and games too.

1:22 PM: Mikey the Rad Scientist is leading audience-participation science songs as the 2023 Morgan Junction Community Festival gets under way in the park just north of Beveridge Place Pub. (It’s Father’s Day, so Mikey even brought his dad.) This is a simple three-hour festival in the park this year, with a half-dozen community-group booths (us too):

The booths have simple free activities too – as we mentioned last night, the Southwest Seattle Historical Society has rock-painting for the Save the Stone Cottage campaign.

(Photo courtesy Clay Eals, WSHS – Lauren was painting)

And just north of the park, skateboarding instruction is offered by Let the Kids Skate (once the weather dries – with giveaways, we hear – next to the Seattle Parks booth where you can revisit the park addition’s design plan as they look ahead to site cleanup later this year and park construction in 2025.

(Cove is helping out)

Coming up: The Potholes at 2 pm (sponsored by WSB) and Gary Benson at 3 pm (sponsored by Thunder Road Guitars, also a WSB sponsor). The Morgan Community Association presents the festival every year (and you can come learn about them too), with the aforementioned community co-sponsors and others.

2:07 PM: The Potholes – all young West Seattle musicians – just started their set in the park. No return of raindrops since the first few minutes. Good crowd.

If you like The Potholes – you’ll get to see them at West Seattle Summer Fest, too (3 pm Friday, July 14th)! Meantime, kids’ activities continue – including face-painting with Nichole.

And if you want a traffic-calming sign from SDOT, free, there’s a stock of them at the MoCA booth right by the entrance to the park.

2:40 PM: The Potholes have a heavy dose of what they called “dad rock” in their set – Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd – they even played a soft-rock Chuck Mangione classic. (video added)

They’ve drawn a crowd ringing the park as well as kids dancing on the lawn.

Around the periphery, some sidewalk chalking:

And we’ve had City Council candidate sightings too. Phil Tavel, former VP of MoCA, is emceeing. Rob Saka and family just stopped by to say hi. And Jean Iannelli Craciun is tabling on the sidewalk right outside the festival. (3 1/2 weeks until ballots go in the mail.)

3:04 PM: Final hour of the festival has begun. Gary Benson is performing now, with classic guitar rock/folk. (video added)

Poogooder is here with a variety of activities reinforcing their mission of helping dog owners be more environmentally friendly.

And over at the future park addition, skating is happening:

Skating will continue past 4 pm with a trick contest. The rest of the festival wraps up at 4, so come say hi before then. All ages have been coming through (chatting next to our booth are two families with babies, one just a few weeks old). And the sun’s been shining off and on, too.

3:51 PM: Everybody’s packing up – except the skaters – and Gary Benson just sang “You Got a Friend” as his finale. Thanks to everyone who sponsored and volunteered, and everyone who came by to say hi.

One month from today, the peninsula’s biggest party of the year begins – West Seattle Summer Fest in The Junction, Friday, July 14th, through Sunday, July 16th. We talked about the plan recently with Chris Mackay, executive director of the West Seattle Junction Association, which presents Summer Fest (which has its roots decades ago in an annual Junction-wide summertime sidewalk sale).

Hours and festival footprint will be the same as last year – vendors will be open 1-8 pm Friday, 10 am-8 pm Saturday, 10 am-5 pm Sunday, with music and beer garden running later on Friday and Saturday. Main-stage music will again be Friday and Saturday only – if you missed the lineup announcement last month, see it here. On Sunday, the Farmers’ Market will be on California north of Oregon like last year.

Enjoy festival browsing, to shop and learn? You’ll find more vendors this year – about 150 (listed here). The food booths will be a bit more numerous this year too (list coming soon). The kid zone on the west side of the festival – on SW Alaska and in the lot behind KeyBank – will include inflatables as well as free activities hosted by local schools. A community mural will be created again at Summer Fest this year (thanks to Dan Wiseman‘s legacy gift).

And of course it all starts Thursday afternoon/evening with Summer Fest Eve – your chance to wander the streets of The Junction and enjoy Art Walk venues while Summer Fest setup happens. We’ll see you in The Junction next month!

Next Sunday (June 18th) is the day the Morgan Community Association invites you to Morgan Junction Park (6413 California SW) for this year’s Morgan Junction Community Festival! 1-4 pm, here’s what you’ll find:

ENTERTAINMENT LINEUP:
1:00 pm – Mikey the Rad Scientist brings science and nature to life with his creative, interactive and engaging music. From the adventures of a water molecule named Carlos to a musical journey to the center of the earth, his music strikes an chord with children and parents alike. Mikey believes we can all have a great time singing and dancing about the wonders of the world.

2:00 pm – The Potholes (sponsored by WSB) are high-energy funky fusion humans. Home of the grooviest bangers on the block, served with a side of guac and a hint of rock. West Seattle High School proud!

3:00 pm – Gary Benson (sponsored by Thunder Road Guitars) is a local folk-rock favorite at past Morgan Junction Community Festivals. A solo performer in the style of the Beatles, Shawn Colvin, James Taylor and other folk singers, Gary sings “the music I grew up with and the current songs that I love.”

FEATURED GUESTS
Inside Morgan Junction Park we’ll host local nonprofits with interactive activities for kids. Be sure to visit West Seattle HEY, Poogooder, 34th District Democrats, SW Seattle Historical Society with Stone Cottage, Emergency HUBS, and Let The Kids Skate!

NEW PARK COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Seattle Parks continues to work on the adjacent Morgan Junction Park Addition plan. The design firm Board & Vellum along and Park’s project manager are excited to be participating in the Morgan Junction Community Festival. Be sure to stop by their booth to reconfirm the park design and provide input on additional features. After the Festival, Seattle Parks will host an on-line survey to gather input from people unable to attend the event.

Special Morgan Junction Community Festival Thanks to our Sponsors, our Supporters, West Seattle Blog, O’Neill Plumbing, Beveridge Place Pub, Alki Lumber, West Seattle Minuteman Press and all our Friends. The Festival would not happen without you.

The banners are up for this year’s Morgan Junction Community Festival, now exactly two weeks away! The Morgan Community Association will present the festival 1-4 pm Sunday, June 18, at Morgan Junction Park (6413 California SW). Yes, that’s Father’s Day – MoCA says it’s a great place for Dad and the kid(s) to go together. Here’s the festival overview from MoCA’s Michael Brunner – starting with the three performers:

Mikey the Rad Scientist has been teaching and singing nature songs for over ten years and makes science fun by using stories, songs, props and movement to reinforce student’s learning.

The Potholes are a five piece funk-pop fusion band that performs covers as well as songs from their just released EP “Public Transportation.” The Potholes are all West Seattleites, and students at West Seattle High School. They were featured at last year’s West Seattle Summer Fest and Harvest Fest.

Gary Benson is a Seattle-based singer and acoustic guitarist who plays in the style of the iconic musical figures that he grew up listening to, including James Taylor, CSNY, the Beatles, Allison Krauss, and Shawn Colvin. His folk-based acoustic style has been very popular in the open-mic scene in Seattle, where he plays regularly, along with summer festivals and farmers’ markets. He has performed at the Morgan Junction Festival for many years.

This year we will also host non-profit booths and tables. Participants will include 34th District Democrats, Seattle Be Prepared, Southwest Historical Society, The Whale Trail, and Westside Healthy Empowered Youth. Each will offer important information updates to the community, and several will feature fun children activities as well.

Community business co-sponsors of the festival include WSB.

Just two months until West Seattle’s biggest party of the year, Summer Fest, July 14-16. The West Seattle Junction Association presents Summer Fest and has just announced the main-stage music lineup:

Friday

3:00 – The Potholes
4:00 – Waves Crashing
5:00 – Once For Kicks
6:00 – Randy Campbell
7:00 – Dusty 45’s
8:00 – Shaina Shepherd
9:00 – Polyrhythmics

Saturday

12:00 – Mode Music Showcase
1:00 – School of Rock
2:00 – Warren Dunes
3:00 – Mikey Moo
4:00 – Memphis Radio Kings
5:00 – Final Body
6:00 – Acid Tongue
7:00 – Jarv Dee
8:00 – Sandrider
9:00 – The Cave Singers
DJ Yo Adrien

As shown above, music is just on Friday and Saturday again this year. Festival hours will be 1-8 pm Friday (music later), 10 am-8 pm Saturday (music later), and 10 am-5 pm Sunday (including the Farmers’ Market). More Summer Fest previews in the weeks ahead!

(WSB photo, 2019)

Since 2019, the West Seattle Junction has put up Pride flags, but there’s been no accompanying festival. That’s about to change. This year, the Junction area will have its own Pride Fest, the result of a city grant program (mentioned here in February) that will help launch that and two other new events. Here’s the announcement from the Junction Association:

The West Seattle Junction Association has been working with the City of Seattle Office of Arts and Culture (ARTS) on a funding program for cultural activations in the Junction. With $56,950 to distribute, we requested proposals and convened a awards panel of West Seattle arts and business professionals. We saw many excellent proposals and wished we could have funded them all!

We are delighted to announce that funding was awarded for the three following projects:

West Seattle First Fridays, a dynamic art and retail experience beginning in May at Jet City Labs, with an emphasis on creating opportunities for BIPOC makers, artists and entrepreneurs.

Sounds from Around the World: two free community concert events produced by Urgent Africa – one all day in Junction Plaza Park on June 3, one in the Senior Center on May 31 – of live world music featuring at least 25 performing artists in total.

West Seattle Pride Fest: our community’s long overdue first Pride Fest, held throughout the West Seattle Junction on June 17, bringing the community together to celebrate LGBTQ Art and Culture with music, comedy, drag shows, and more.

We are looking forward to the continued revitalization of arts, culture, and community in the Junction!

We’re reaching out to the respective events’ organizers to find out more about the plans.