Happy Spring

PT Farmers Market
Port Townsend Farmers Market
We’re celebrating spring in Port Townsend and invite you to join us! It’s a beautiful season of new beginnings, fresh buds in bloom, animals birthing new offspring and the earth seemingly coming alive again. With farmers and gardeners planting seeds and harvesting early products, we’re excited to welcome back the Farmers Market after its winter hiatus!

Where else can you enjoy a goat parade with kids—both four-legged and two—as they wend their way along Taylor Street in Uptown Port Townsend through an array of farmers, bakers, crafters, shellfish growers, cider and wine makers and more?

It all begins with the opening of the Port Townsend Farmers Market on Saturday, April 7, with a ribbon cutting at 9 am followed by the baby goat parade. (Come in an animal costume for a chance to win a $20 Flora Market token!) Delight in the 70+ vendors that spring into the freshness of the season with a wide array of products for your enjoyment. A chef’s demo and live music will add to the day’s festivities. The Farmers Market invites you to celebrate 26 years of nurturing and sustaining local farms and entrepreneurs. For more info about the market, go to www.jcfmarkets.org.

Key City Public Theatre presents Wolf at the Door, April 12-28, with evening shows at 7:30 pm and Sunday matinees at 2:30 pm. A tenant’s rights association built on shaky alliances comes to loggerheads in the face of a gentrifying block in this hilarious world premier by acclaimed playwright, Richard Dresser. The play utilizes double roles for each actor, keeping you on the edge of your seat.

There’s a new landlord in town promising to make the building better, safer and more modern, but what about the people in rent-controlled apartments who have started to disappear. And isn’t building security just a little over the top? Character Tina thinks it’s time to form a Tenant’s Association and fight back before it’s too late. Will they hang together or hang separately? Find out the answer at the play! For more info or to purchase tickets, go to www.keycitypublicthreatre.org or call 360.385.5278.

The Port Townsend Film Festival’s Women & Film weekend includes your choice of 16 films, and two special events. In this #TimesUp, #MeToo year, women filmmakers break the “rules” without apology at the “Women Speak Out” symposium, Saturday, April 14, at 10:30 am, at the Cotton Building in downtown Port Townsend with coffee and pastries. Saturday night’s special event begins with a gathering at Taps at the Guardhouse at Fort Worden, followed by a 7:30 pm screening of Catching Sight of Thelma & Louise, with director Jennifer Townsend, at the Wheeler Theatre at Fort Worden. Passes are $75 and all include concierge service. Only 250 passes are available. To purchase, go to www.ptfilmfest.com.

If you love to cook and dream about your ideal kitchen, come to the 21st Annual AAUW/UWF Kitchen Tour, Saturday, April 28 from 10 am to 4 pm. Nine unique homes in Uptown and North Beach will be featured. Tickets are available at www.brownpapertickets.com and on the day of the event at the Hospitality Center at the First Presbyterian Church at 1111 Franklin Street.

Join Centrum for one of the most uplifting and memorable events of the year, the Centrum Choro Faculty Concert on Saturday, April 28 at 7:30 pm in the Wheeler Theater at Fort Worden. With an all-start cast of performances, this concert traditionally sells out was the talk of the town for the entire spring and summer season last year, so don’t delay and buy your tickets today at www.centrum.org/choro-performance/

Make Port Townsend your home base for the weekend and tour nine award-winning wineries and cideries across the Olympic Peninsula for the annual Wine, Cider and Cheese Tour, April 28-29, from 11 am to 5 pm. This wine and cider trail is one to be envied with each location offering a unique and diverse variety of wine and cider paired lovingly with local, hand-crafted cheeses. For more info and ticket details, go to www.olympicpeninsulawineries.org.

Save the date for upcoming events in May:

May 5
Opening Day on the Bay for Boating Season
Boat parade begins at 12:30 pm at the Northwest Maritime Center
www.ptyc.net

May 16-20
83rd Annual Rhododendron Festival
Enjoy the Pet Parade, Bed Races, Grand Parade and Rhody Run
www.rhodyfestival.org

May 26
Port Townsend Artisan Food Festival
www.jcfmarkets.org

We look forward to welcoming you to Port Townsend in April!

 

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Red Wine & Chocolates

Red Wine and Chocolates

Red Wine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love is in the air with Valentine’s Day just a few short weeks away. Escape with your sweetheart to Port Townsend for a romantic weekend getaway. We have a wide array of fantastic accommodations to suit your style. Click here for choices and to book your reservation. Many of our restaurants are offering Valentine’s specials too. For more details, contact our Visitor Information Center at info@jeffcountychamber.org or 360.385.2722.

Start your romantic celebration with Port Townsend as your home base and fall head over heels with the Olympic Peninsula Wineries and Cideries during their luscious Red Wine, Cider and Chocolate event over two scrumptious weekends: February 10-11 and 17-19, from 11 am to 5 pm. Let your quest for guilty pleasures run wild with the unmatched, extraordinary blends of Washington grapes, apples and pears—paired with decadent chocolates and local culinary fare. Enjoy a romantic drive through the scenic Olympic Peninsula!

The ticket and glass package entitles you to a special commemorative wine glass, complimentary wine/cider tasting and chocolate samples at the nine participating wineries and cideries. Book here for online tickets. www.olympicpeninsulawineries.org/redwinechocolate.php

What better place to celebrate love than Port Townsend? Over the years, our city has received many accolades from the media naming us the “best of….” Most recently, in 2017, we were named by Architectural Digest as “One of the 15 Most Beautiful Main Streets Across America” and MSN named Port Townsend the “Prettiest Town in Washington.”

With that in mind, we welcome you to come downtown and show your love for our fair city by penning a Love Letter to Port Townsend. You can write a poem, a love letter, or simply list the three things you love most about Port Townsend. Select restaurants and coffee shops will have entry forms. Please enter by February 14 to win prizes.

Concierges are ready to assist you!

On Saturdays, Port Townsend have friendly “Celebrity Concierges” roaming Water Street, from 1-3 pm, offering suggestions for things to do and see, giving directions and answering questions. They’ll be providing coupon books and maps to help you get around downtown. Be sure to look for them!

From now through June, the “Believe It or Knot!” game will pique your interest in unbelievable facts (or fiction) about our salty seaport. From the 1890s Victorian seaport to modern day, the past and present of Port Townsend will have you questioning whether you believe it or “knot.”

Hidden throughout downtown are incredible facts (true or false!) about our city. Find 10 of them at participating businesses. Try your hand to see how well you know your facts about Port Townsend by completing the game to be entered in prize drawings–$100 in monthly gift certificates and a chance to win a grand prize of $500 in gift certificates to spend in downtown businesses. And be sure to tag any of your photos on Instagram or Facebook with #ILovePortTownsend!

Key City Playhouse

Key City Playhouse

Key City Public Theatre will kick off its 60th anniversary season with the Northwest Premiere of the critically-acclaimed, one-woman play, “Spirit Awakening,” written, directed and performed by Akuyoe Graham, at the KCPT Playhouse February 9, 10, 16, and 17 at 7 pm with Saturday matinees at 2 pm.

Capturing how Ms. Graham evolved as a human being and performer, an immigrants and a woman, this mythic story is effused with power and strength, sensitivity and emotion as the supremely skilled Graham creates 12 distinct personalities that segue into one another with seamless brilliance as her life takes her from Africa to London to Spanish Harlem and eventually Hollywood. Each step provokes new levels of personal assessment, raising complex questions of split loyalties and the difficulties of rediscovering one’s roots, unimpeded by dogma. One film/theatre critic described her as a “mystic in the theatre, a sage on the screen.”

To purchase tickets, go to www.keycitypublictheatre.org or call 360.385.5278.

 

Shipwrights
Shipwrights

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sailboat racing season opens with the 27th Annual Port Townsend Shipwrights’ Regatta on February 24. Boats of all construction are welcome. As always, the race is open to folks who would like to try sailboat racing, but do not have a boat. Non-boat owners are encouraged to show up at the Skippers’ Meeting to be connected with skippers looking for crew.

The regatta is presented by the Northwest Maritime Center and the Port Townsend Sailing Association. www.nwmaritime.org/events/shipwrights-regatta/

Save the date for upcoming events in March and April:

March 2-11
22nd  Annual Port Townsend PlayFest
Key City Public Theatre, Port Townsend
This is a theater lover’s feast offering 10 plays over two weekends, including six one-act plays by local writers and three full-length plays by regional and national playwrights.

March 23-25
Victorian Heritage Festival
Port Townsend
The theme is Victorian Dreams—from roots as traditional as tea and shortbread to the high-flying speculation of Jules Verne, there will be celebrations about all that was best in the hearts and minds of this time in history. Mark your calendar for a grand time for the entire family!

We look forward to welcoming you to Port Townsend!

© 2024 John Eissinger, GRI