Live from West Seattle Summer Fest: Friday night updates

(scroll down for frequent updates and photos)

(The Full Tilt Ice Cream bicycle, staffed by Greg, roaming earlier)
The sun’s still up but it’s after 5:30 so we’re hereby declaring this Friday night. A nice breeze is blowing through the main crossroads of the West Seattle Summer Fest festival grounds. The much-awaited Mudhoney performance is a little more than two hours away. We’re still headquartered at the big tent at California/Alaska (look for Information/Junction/Survey signage). More to come!

Ladder 11 – based in Highland Park – is here as are firefighters collecting for the Muscular Dystrophy Association “Fill the Boot” drive – you might have seen the donation drive elsewhere in West Seattle earlier today (we passed them at California/Fauntleroy in Morgan Junction). They’ll be here throughout the evening, so if you’re coming down for Mudhoney, keep an eye out for them. Lots of other unique fundraisers here – like this one:

Michelle Joan is with the quilt that West Seattle Sound View Quilters are raffling in October – buy tickets here now! They’re in front of Stop n Shop on the ground level of the Senior Center of West Seattle. Thanks to Louise for e-mailing to make sure we came by for a photo – we’d love to hear from anybody else with fundraisers or cool deals here – we’re roaming for photos but there’s so much here, we won’t see it all, no matter how hard we try. And of course you’ll see so many great local businesses here, including more than a few WSB sponsors — such as the Dream Dinners crew:

The official end time for Summer Fest tonight is 8 pm, but that’s when the Mudhoney concert starts, so it’ll be rolling for a while past 8. We’ll be here in the central tent, too, since we’ll be covering what’s expected to be quite the crowd for the concert.

7:10 PM UPDATE: It’s been busy much of the day but this is the busiest yet. No trouble though, and just in case, there’s a sizable police contingent on hand — just feet away from us (and close to the “Alaska” stage where Mudhoney will be playing in an hour or so) — this photo gives you an idea of the sunshine we’re looking into (hey, we’re not complaining):

Reminder that in addition to the food vendors, many local restaurants have sidewalk cafes set up, expanding their capacity, like West 5:

7:56 PM UPDATE: Minutes till Mudhoney’s scheduled performance and we have answered the question “where’s the Alaska stage?” about a hundred times, as the last people remaining in the info tent. Of course we’re also staked out over by the stage in hopes of capturing some of the show on video too. Another big question here at this hour – restaurant recommendations. And we’ve had more than a few non-West Seattle visitors ask whether they could walk to Alki from here. (Well, you CAN, but it’ll take you a while.) Oh dear, a little boy who got separated from his parent/s just showed up – the police are chatting with him – remember that if (heaven forbid) you get separated from a child here at Summer Fest, come to the Information (etc.) Booth here at California/Alaska. Nearby, Fitness Together has an old-fashioned “test your strength” setup – here’s a bit of video:

8:15 PM UPDATE: Mudhoney’s playing now, after an introduction by King County Council Chair (and County Executive candidate) Dow Constantine. Video shortly. (By the way, the aforementioned lost child has been reunited with his family.)

9:06 PM: Here’s our crowd-shot video, and you can hear Mudhoney playing. We have a longer clip – their first song, and the Dow C intro – that we’ll upload upon arrival at WSB HQ (video via middle-of-the-street wi-fi tends to take a while):

Sounds like Mudhoney is wrapping up. Still a lot of people hanging out, and not just the crowd for the concert. The booths are shut down, though, and we’re rolling up our spot for the night – back in the morning. More coverage (and other news) to come, though, here on WSB — we’re just changing locales. Oh yeah – there’s the Mudhoney encore.

11 Replies to "Live from West Seattle Summer Fest: Friday night updates"

  • Robert Hull July 10, 2009 (6:16 pm)

    We went to the Summerfest this afternoon to check out the items for sale and to get a bite to eat. There were a lot of people there at about 2:00PM on Friday. We thought the prices for food were really high at most places. We got a small Taco at the Matadoor booth for $4.50. Some hot dogs were up to $7.00! We ended up going to Lees Asian for their $6.50 lunch and got quality food. I think it’s much cheaper to go to the restarants for food than go to the street vendors.

  • Irukandji July 10, 2009 (6:34 pm)

    We opted for EBB this afternoon – cool and not crowded… and great service! It could only have been better if we had stepped out to see the Full Tilt freezer-bike coming our way.

  • DML July 10, 2009 (8:27 pm)

    Listening to Mudhoney from Jacobsen Bluff- woof!!
    How about a helium balloon cam to get an aerial shot of the crowd—-sounds like a lot of fans turned out.
    Kidding—the blog coverage has been great all day.

  • Living in West Seattle since 1985 July 10, 2009 (8:37 pm)

    Toasty start to the our West Seattle Street Fair! Don’t forget the sunscrean this weekend!

    LOVE Summer in Seattle!

  • bdb July 10, 2009 (8:40 pm)

    saw hot dogs for 8 bucks..wow

  • WSB July 10, 2009 (8:43 pm)

    We couldn’t get an aerial view but I did ask Patrick to go stroll into the crowd for a look and that’s actually the first video clip we’ll have, shorter than the full song with Dow intro … uploading right now … TR, whose ears will be ringing

  • Erik July 10, 2009 (9:38 pm)

    The first song they did “The Money will roll right in” brought back olde memories. I still have a ‘Fang’ album with that song.

  • Keith July 11, 2009 (12:31 am)

    What’s the story with Blinky’s? Walked by and saw the machines plugged in but didn’t seem like they were open for biz. :(

  • WSB July 11, 2009 (12:41 am)

    We discovered this late this evening after somebody mentioned it. Going to ask fair organizers first thing in am what’s happening.

  • squareeyes July 11, 2009 (9:47 am)

    Hot dog and a bag of chips at the F.O.Eagles stall next to the California stage for $4.

  • squareeyes July 11, 2009 (12:26 pm)

    Ooops, $3 for the hot dog and chips, $4 for brats.

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