Calendar: Summer ends with parades, paddles, arts & crafts

By SCOTT D. JOHNSTON

A trio of traditional events returns this Labor Day weekend to mark the unofficial end of the summer tourist season on the North Coast.

The 50th anniversary edition of the AAOS Arts & Crafts Festival runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Ocean Shores Convention Center. Almost all manner of human-powered watercraft will be used to “Paddle the Shores” Saturday at Oyhut Bay Seaside Village. And up the coast, from Pacific Beach to Moclips, parades and contests of logging skills make up the Kelpers Festival Saturday and Sunday.

Arts & Crafts Festival

Associated Arts of Ocean Shores (AAOS) is one of the oldest nonprofit groups on the coast, and their Arts & Crafts Festival is the longest running annual event at the beach. Over 100 vendors will fill the Convention Center indoors and out. The artisans involved offer wide range of products, all of which are hand-made.

The festival is free to the public and runs 12 noon to 5 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. It is the main fund-raiser that empowers a variety of AAOS projects including public art and their support of art education and scholarships in North Beach schools.

Live music will be offered throughout the weekend, with Blues Remedy playing Friday, the Bruce Hughes Band Saturday and Unexpected Soul and Beach Bash Sunday. A community drum circle, conducted by Drum Life, is planned for 1 p.m. Saturday.

Event coordinator Sylvia Schroll described the Arts & Crafts Festival as “a fun, friendly opportunity to purchase unique hand-crafted items at a reasonable price, support the artists who created them, and support our local artists and the work that we love to do for our community.”

Kelpers Day Celebration

The unique Kelpers Parade is on Sunday (starts at noon from Moclips, down State Route 109 to 1st St. in Pacific Beach, ending on Main St.), with the Kiddies Parade on Saturday (gather at the burger stand on Main St. at 11:30 a.m.), along with the annual Tug Of War (1 p.m.) contest between the towns of Moclips and Pacific Beach.

Saturday starts with the annual pancake breakfast at the North Beach Community Center from 8-11 a.m. For the kids parade, costumes will be judged and it’s free to enter. Also at 7 p.m. Saturday there will be a street dance in Pacific Beach.

Logging contests Sunday at the Shake Rat Rendezvous.

Paddle the Shores

This Saturday-only event is all about human-powered water craft and offers boat races in a half-dozen categories, including kayaks and canoes. There is a stand-up paddleboard race, a poker paddle, cardboard boat building and races and rubber ducky and floaty fun.

All of the water activities begin on the Oyhut Canal, just across Marine View Drive from Oyhut Bay Seaside Village. The 2-mile and 6-mile races go through Lake Minard, past the east end of the Bell Canals and onto the Grand Canal.

Water participants are required to bring their own life jackets and whistles. The $15 entry fee ($30 with a commemorative event T-shirt) lets paddlers participate in all events except the cardboard boats, which requires a separate $15 fee to help cover the cost of materials. Spectators are free. Participants can register online at Brown Paper Tickets — https://m.bt.me/event/3565108 or at the event beginning at 9 a.m. In the Oyhut Bay Village Square will be live music, outdoor games including a corn hole tournament, vendors, food, and family fun with the Ocean Shores Pirates and their Black Rose pirate ship.

Paddle the Shores is sponsored by the non-profit Ocean Shores Fresh Waterways Corp. whose Bruce Malloy has been coordinating the group’s 18 or so volunteers who will stage the event. He said the day “is a great way to close out the summer on some of Ocean Shores’ 23 miles of fresh waterways.”

Paddle Schedule

Saturday, Sept. 1

9:00 Registration

9:35 Race Meeting

10:00 6-mile race

11:00 SUP race

12:00 Poker Paddle

1:00 2-mile race

2:30 Cardboard boat building

3:30 Cardboard races

4:30 Awards & raffles

Live Music Schedule