The Holiday Port Fest returns this weekend for its 21st year with a few minor changes, but it's essentially the same beloved event that draws thousands of area residents for three days of free Christmas-related activities.
Hours are noon to 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3; and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 4, at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal, 355 Harris Ave. in the Fairhaven district.
Sponsored by the Port of Bellingham, the event features musical and other performances by local groups, the annual Lighted Boat Parade, and the annual Gingerbread House Contest. Allied Arts will offer craft activities in the cafe area on the first floor. Also featured are visits with Santa Claus, horse and wagon rides, and fire engine rides. Cruise terminal businesses will remain open, and outside food vendors include Streat Food and Veg Express.
"The community really enjoys it," said Marie Duckworth, community relations coordinator for the Port of Bellingham. People come to see performances of friends or family members and then they stay to enjoy other events."
Attendance varies from 5,000 to 8,000 over three days, often depending on whether a local high school sports team is doing well in the playoffs, she said.
Possibly the most visible change is that the location for the gingerbread house exhibit will be near the top of the stairs on the second floor, and the dance and musical performances will be near the second-floor windows where the gingerbread houses have been set up in the past.
The previous setup was sometimes too crowded to allow adequate time to see the various gingerbread houses, Duckworth said.
"That gives us more room to spread the gingerbread houses out," Duckworth said. "It gives more room for people to walk through and see the gingerbread displays. People should find it a lot easier to move through and get their pictures."
There were some 90 entries last year in the contest, which features edible structures that push the boundaries of the term "gingerbread house." Past creations have included everything from simple winter scenes to intricate representations of the Space Needle in Seattle, the Whatcom Museum's Old City Hall galleries and Whatcom Middle School.
The Lighted Boat Parade, sponsored by the Bellingham Yacht Club in conjunction with the festival, is set for 5-8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. It features decorated boats sailing from Squalicum Harbor across Bellingham Bay to the Bellingham Cruise Terminal in Fairhaven. Good places to watch the spectacle are from the second-floor Dome Room inside the cruise terminal, from the walkways outside the terminal, or from Boulevard Park.
Another first this year is a performance by the Bellingham High School alumni band, which is scheduled to play at 1 p.m. Sunday.
"The band is really popular in the community," Duckworth said.
Duckworth said people might like a cute new group called the Splatty Daddies.
"It's a quartet of fathers from the Columbia neighborhood who get together and sings songs this time of year," she said. Catch them at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
Returning for an encore performance this year is the Vocal Studio of Jamie T, which is slated to do a holiday medley at 4:30 p.m. Friday.
"Her girls are excellent," Duckworth said.
Many groups are familiar to local residents from other events throughout the year, Duckworth said. Many local junior high and high school choral, band and orchestra groups are set to perform.
For a complete list of events, so online to portofbellingham.com/index.aspx?nid=141.
Also popular every years are wagon rides from Cramer Classics, whose Percherons, a kind of draft horse, are decked out in fancy livery.
Firefighters for Fun fire will offer free fire engine rides and a fire-safety component. "That's real important this time of year with the danger of tree fires," Duckworth said.
But most of all, they get to sound the siren. "The kids really get a kick out of that," she said.
