Gig Harbor’s Maritime Festival

Blessing of the fleet from last year's festival

This coming weekend June 4 and 5 my hometown of Gig Harbor Washington is having a Maritime Festival. It begins with a pancake breakfast starting at 8 am going until 10 am. At 10 am is the Maritime parade that goes for about two and half hours. I would say about three thousand people show up for the parade depending on the weather. This year another spectacular day is forecasted with the temperatures around upper 80s.

After the parade they have other activities happening throughout the day and evening which includes events for kids and music. Also food is available on the waterfront. The parade actually goes along the waterfront being about a mile long. It has been a tradition since the early 70s when it was called Harbor Holiday’s. I believe the name was changed to Maritime Festival around 1980. So you see it has been going on for over forty years.

If you are in the Gig Harbor area this weekend or nearby I recommend coming to enjoy all the fun times. If you can’t make it this year you should put it on your calendar for 2017. This is a good way to see how a small town celebrates a good time. Part of the festival is for everyone to send off the fishermen who leave in June for the summer to fish up in Alaska or the Washington coast. This has been going on for more than one hundred years.

The first white men who came to Gig Harbor were from Croatia. Many of the fishermen today are descendants of those original fishermen. So you have grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren of the original fishermen. Many of them fishing are guys that I grew up with and have lived here all their lives along with their parents.

There are other cities in Western Washington who send fishermen up to Alaska and Washington coast but no one has as many as Gig Harbor. The Native Americans who have lived here for one thousand years or longer still fish in Washington State as well. Agreement that happened in the 70s the white man and Native Americans share the amount of fish that can be caught in Washington State. So when each can fish is depended on the agreement. The split of fishing between the white man and Native Americans is fifty-fifty. Still a debate whether  the split is really in half however the government makes sure both sides abide by the agreement.

Again a fun way to spend a weekend especially when the weather is really nice; I go primarily to see the children and running into people I know. I haven’t made it every year because I have been out of town on a few occasions but I do when I am in town. In the meantime everyone have a really great weekend.