Arts & Entertainment Community

Harbor Happenings | Chalk the Harbor, Summer Art Festival headline busy week

Posted on July 16th, 2024 By: Charlee Glock-Jackson

Draw on the sidewalk. Sniff some lavender. Hear some poems. Explore the beach. Buy some art. Dance your socks off. Watch a movie. There’s plenty to do this week in Gig Harbor.

Chalk the Harbor

Starting at 10 a.m. Saturday, July 20, pick up a supply of free chalk at Donkey Creek Park or Skansie Brothers Park and spend the day adding your personal artwork to the sidewalk along Harborview Drive.

Want to try for a prize? Register for the chalk-art contest when you get your chalks. (You can also enter the contest using your own chalk.) Categories include youth (ages 5 to 9), tween (10 to 13), teen (14 to 18), adult (18 and older), family/mixed age and best maritime theme.

Registration continues through 2 p.m. and the event wraps up around 3. Chalk the Harbor is sponsored by the Downtown Waterfront Alliance.

Summer Art Festival

The Summer Art Festival has moved from downtown to Sehmel Homestead Park.

The event is from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, July 20; and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, July 21. Free shuttles will run both days from Gig Harbor High School, 5010 Rosedale St. NW, and the Franciscan Medical Pavilion, 6401 Kimball Drive. Admission to the festival is free. Find more information here.

Lavender festival

Olalla’s first-ever Lavender Festival takes place Saturday and Sunday, with workshops, a winery tour, live music, art-making activities and a variety of arts and crafts vendors. Workshops include how to make a lavender wreath or wand, how to create greeting cards and more. For information, go here.

Eliza Liebner holds a collection of picked lavender, preparing to make a homemade lavender wreath that the Crescent Valley Lavender Farm sells to customers. Photo by Ronan Lynch

Poetry reading

Eight Western Washington poets whose works are included in recently published anthologies will read from their work at St. John’s Episcopal Church at 7 p.m. Friday, July 19. Readers include Tami Gratzke of Tacoma; Mary Eliza Crane of Snoqualmie Valley; Griffith H. Williams of Kenmore; David Post and Lori Bellamy. The new anthologies, “Examined Life: A Western Washington Poets Network Anthology” and “Good Word Walking,” were hand-set and printed on a century-old printing press. After the readings, local poets are invited to share their own poems at an open mic. St. John’s Episcopal Church is at 7701 Skansie Ave.

Beach walks

Take advantage of the summer’s low tides and learn about the many species of sea life that make their homes in the Salish Sea. Volunteers from Harbor WildWatch will lead guided beach walks on these days:

July 19: Sunrise Beach Park or Tacoma Narrows Beach Park, meet at 9:30 a.m.
July 20: Olalla boat launch, meet at 12 p.m.
July 21: Owen Beach or Manchester State Park**, meet at 10 a.m.
July 22: Titlow Beach or Fox Island boat launch, meet at 11:15 a.m.
July 23: Manchester State Park**, meet at 12 p.m.
July 23: Titlow Beach Park, meet at 12:15 p.m.

Visit the WildWatch website for the full schedule here.

** State Parks annual pass is required.

Farmers Market

The Waterfront Farmers Market is from 1 to 6 p.m. Thursday, July 18, at Skansie Brothers Park. In addition to a variety of produce, flowers and food vendors, there’s also live music, a splash pad, art-making activities for kids and a saltwater touch tank (inside the Harbor WildWatch building next to the park). Sara Tweet and Crew and Angelina Adams are the featured bands.

Summer Sounds

Wally and the Beavs take the stage at 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 16, for the first Summer Sounds at Skansie concert of the summer. During the intermission, sixth-grader Marcella Morgan will share her rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Marcella was one of the contestants in the Kiwanis Club’s “Gig Harbor’s Got Talent” contest earlier this year. Free; all ages are welcome.

An easy, hassle-free way to get to the concerts is to park at the Kimball Park and Ride and take the Route 100 bus down to the park. The bus leaves the Park and Ride at 5:41 p.m. on weekdays, and heads downtown with a stop at Skansie Park. On the return trip, the bus stops across from the park at approximately 7:37 p.m. and 8:37 p.m., then heads back up the hill to the park and ride.

Wally and the Beavs

Other live music this week:

The Profits provide the music starting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 17, at Sehmel Homestead Park. The show is part of PenMet Parks‘ summer concert series. Bring a low-back chair and a nonperishable food item for the Kiwanis’ food collection program. Free; all ages are welcome.
The Shy Boys play a free concert in the Uptown Pavilion at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 18. All ages are welcome.
Janie Cribbs and the Trust Band perform at Kimball Coffeeshop on Friday, July 19. Doors open at 6 p.m. Music starts at 7 p.m. Free; all ages are welcome.
Kenny Callahan plays covers of Jack Johnson, John Mayer and others Friday at Olalla Valley Vineyard and Winery. Purchase tickets here.

Kenny Callahan

At the movies

“The Lego Movie” is the SummerFest movie at the Galaxy Theatres in Uptown Wednesday and Thursday, with showings at 10:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m.
July 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 it’s “Sonic the Hedgehog,” a live-action adventure comedy based on the video game. Showtimes are 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on July 19 and 23; 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on July 20 and 21 and 10:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on July 22. SummerFest movies are just $2.
Wednesday’s Flashback Cinema movie is “The Goonies” playing at noon and 6 p.m. at the Galaxy.
Sunday’s Flashback movie is “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1.” Showtimes are 11:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Flashback movies are just $5.
Thursday at Ocean5, the Shrek series plays all day during Movies at the Lanes.

Civic engagement

The Gig Harbor City Council meets at 5:30 p.m. Monday, July 22, at the Civic Center on Grandview Street. Tentative agenda items include approving a lodging tax grant to the Chamber of Commerce to handle the city’s marketing and tourism efforts, swearing in of Police Officer Lisandro Castro, assigning of a purchase and sale agreement for txʷaalqəł Conservation Area and a quarterly budget update. Council meetings can also be accessed via Zoom here.