Bellingham SeaFeast 2017: Dining, Boat Rides, People’s Choice Salmon, SeaFeast Wharf, and Games

New features of the second annual Bellingham SeaFeast, scheduled Sept. 22-23, range from special dining to artistic to educational to just crazy fun. Several new activities sprinkle the lineup with attractions that aim to top the draw of last year’s inaugural family-friendly festival when more than 6,000 visited Squalicum Harbor and Zuanich Point Park. New to the activities menu:

SeaFeed at the Square, a dinner of world-class seafood at downtown’s Depot Market Square, 1100 Railroad Ave., features raw and grilled oysters, fresh grilled salmon, and a Dungeness crab boil by Crave Catering. The seafood dinner starts at 5 p.m. Sept. 22. A limited number of tickets for $50 apiece sell online at www.BellinghamSeaFeast.com until noon Sept. 22. Any remaining tickets will sell at the door for $60 apiece.
Taste the Sea: A Sustainable Seafood Experience, presented by Haggen Northwest Fresh, offers samplings of Pacific NW seafood that participants learn about in the Squalicum Boathouse, among the many events at Zuanich Point Park. Taste the Sea takes place in one-hour shifts at 11:30 a.m., and 1 p.m., 2:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. Sept. 23. Capacity is 80 for each session. Tickets are $10 apiece ($5 ages 12-U) online at www.BellinghamSeaFeast.com by 11:30 p.m. Sept. 22. Any remaining tickets will sell at the door.
A People’s Choice Award has been added to the International Salmon BBQ Grilling Championships on Sept. 23. Participants will purchase tickets ($1 each sample), judge the competitors’ salmon, and vote on the Top 3.
Boat & Tour No. 2 will cruise the waterway of Bellingham Bay around the new Downtown Waterfront redevelopment project in five runs, 11:30 a.m., 12:15 p.m., 1 p.m., 1:45 p.m. and 3 p.m. Sept. 23. Tickets to that and one other boat ride and tour of Bellingham Cold Storage, which sold out last year, are available online ($10) until 11:30 p.m. Sept. 22.
The new SeaFeast Wharf presents more than 100 artists and vendors, including a maritime-themed Art Walk organized by Allied Arts of Whatcom County. Artists in action, paintings and metal, glass and ceramic works will be featured Sept. 23.
The fun and games for all ages Sept. 23 include two new activities – the Herring Toss and the XTRATUF Stomp in which four-person teams wear fishermen boots and trudge across a field on wooden slats in a relay race.

For more information and a complete schedule of events, including details of Friday night action with FisherPoets-on-Bellingham Bay (4 venues), and a Saturday Fish Market, visit www.BellinghamSeaFeast.com. For visitor information about Bellingham, visit www.bellingham.org.