PORT TOWNSEND — Saturday’s forecast calls for warm weather, a Rhododendron Festival Grand Parade, live music and 1,500 slices of cake served free in the park.
The long-awaited parade will start at noon Saturday at Lawrence and Harrison streets Uptown, flow down Lawrence to Monroe Street, and wind its way downtown toward the Pope Marine Plaza on Water Street. That’s where the Cake Picnic will happen at 2 p.m.
The parade has 40 entries, Rhody Festival president Lori Morris said Thursday. Among them are floats from Port Orchard’s Fathoms O’ Fun festival, the Sequim Irrigation Festival and the Mason County Forest Festival, plus a few dozen local businesses and nonprofit groups.
The official Rhododendron Festival float will carry the royalty: Queen Jenessah Seebergoss, Princess Hailey Hirschel and Princess Brigitte Palmer. Crowned in 2020, the trio has waited well over a year to step up and wave to parade spectators.
The Boeing Bluebills, a team of retired Boeing Co. workers who volunteer on a variety of community projects, are grand marshals for this 85th annual parade.
The theme is “stop and smell the rhodies,” figuratively speaking, since there won’t be the usual fresh rhododendron fronds on this year’s floats.
Normally held the third weekend of May, the Rhody Parade was canceled last year and postponed this year due to the uncertainties of the pandemic. Yet an August event does have its perks.
Local berries, just-ripened in the summer sun, are baked into the cakes for the picnic, said chef Kellen Lynch. The menu plans include a chocolate choice and a lemon-blackberry cake with Italian buttercream icing.
Marching-band music is another thing missing from the 2021 parade; “school’s not in,” said Morris. But the Cake Picnic organizers will supply music: the Unexpected Brass Band, DJ Captain Peacock and the duo Luna Serene and Sorina June are set to provide a soundtrack at the Pope Marine Plaza park.
Danny Milholland of the Production Alliance is orchestrator of this ninth annual Cake Picnic, with 10 teams of people handling everything from baking to safety protocols to tent setup and takedown. Children’s games, face painting and mask-making will also be part of Saturday afternoon’s party.
As the Cake Picnic wraps up sometime before 5 p.m., the crew plans a community portrait photo.
Milholland, with his signature enthusiasm, wrote in an email to volunteers that he’s “feeling stoked.”
“We are looking solid on all fronts,” he added.
________
Jefferson County senior reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladaily news.com.
