If you’ve been watching the calendar, today is the day. After weeks of buildup, Sequim’s 131st Irrigation Festival officially opens tonight with the First Friday Art Walk, and the next nine days are going to be some of the most festive the Dungeness Valley has seen all year. Whether you’re a longtime local or making your first peninsula trip of the season, this weekend alone gives you multiple reasons to come out.
The theme this year — “Let’s go Sequimming!” — captures exactly the spirit the Sequim Irrigation Festival has always had: a community celebrating the water that made this corner of the Olympic Peninsula bloom. The Dungeness River’s first headgate was lifted on May 1, 1895, and 130 years later, Sequim is still throwing a party for it.
Tonight Through Sunday: Crazy Callen Weekend
The festival opens tonight, Thursday April 30, with the First Friday Art Walk from 5–8 p.m. in and around downtown Sequim. This year the Art Walk carries an aqua theme in homage to the festival — galleries open late, the streets fill up, and it’s the kind of low-key festive evening that makes downtown Sequim feel especially alive heading into a big weekend.
Also tonight at 7 p.m., Sequim High School’s Operetta Club raises the curtain on The Wizard of Oz at Sequim High School, 301 W. Henderson Rd. The production is a collaboration between the Operetta Club and Ghostlight Productions, featuring a large ensemble cast that includes local children ages 6 and up as Munchkins and Ozians, eight dancers from The Dance Center by Erica Edwards, and — critically — Arrow the dog as Toto. Tickets are available at the door or at sequimschools.org. The show runs two full weekends: 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays (May 1–2 and 8–9), plus 2 p.m. Sunday matinees on May 3 and 10.
Saturday, May 2 is the centerpiece of Crazy Callen Weekend: Family Fun Days at Carrie Blake Community Park. Gates open at 9 a.m. and run until 5 p.m., with 25 free activity booths and touch-a-trucks spread across the park. Among the highlights: the Sequim Robotics Federation returns with their bot Juggle Jaws — a crowd favorite that tosses balls for visitors to catch and throw back into its hoop. Dungeness Kids Co. will release butterflies at 1 p.m. in cooperation with the Sequim Botanical Garden. The Sequim High School GSA Club will be running a beadwork keychain station. It’s genuinely one of the best free family events on the peninsula, and it’s all happening right here in Carrie Blake.
At noon on Saturday, the Kids Parade rolls through, with lineup starting at 11:45 a.m. in the southwest corner of the Albert Haller Playfields near the bandshell. Children 12 and under can enter — prizes go to best storybook character, best pet, best “All about Sequim,” best festival theme, and best overall. The overall winner gets to ride in the Grand Parade the following weekend.
Running alongside Family Fun Days is the Creative Collective — the rebranded Innovative Arts & Crafts Fair — also at Carrie Blake, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. This year’s vendor count has expanded to 40, with the expanded format now allowing food vendors alongside art and craft sellers.
Live entertainment runs at the James Center for Performing Arts bandshell from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, with the Sequim City Band closing out Sunday at 3:30 p.m.
Saturday evening closes with the Trashion Show at 5:30 p.m. in the Guy Cole Event Center — a beloved festival tradition where participants create wearable art from repurposed and salvaged materials. Last year’s “Best in Show” winner created an elaborate gown from seaweed, shells, corn husks, and fishing line. Sunday morning opens with the Crazy Daze Breakfast Murder Mystery at 9 a.m., also in the Guy Cole Event Center — appropriate for all ages, with advance tickets at the festival website and limited same-morning availability.
Grand Finale Weekend and the Run Series
The festival doesn’t stop after Crazy Callen Weekend. Grand Finale Weekend runs May 7–10, highlighted by the Grand Parade on Saturday, May 9 — the signature event that Sequim Sunrise Rotary has helped organize for decades. Parade entries are closed, but spectator spots along the route are always prime.
Also on May 9: the Irrigation Festival Run Series, with a 2K run/walk departing from the Shipley Center’s new location at 651 W. Washington St. to Pioneer Park and back, finishing with Strait Up Foam Fun’s “Bubble Run.” Sign-ups are still open through the festival website.
The Sequim High School Wizard of Oz production continues through Grand Finale Weekend as well, with shows May 8–9 at 7 p.m. and a final matinee May 10 at 2 p.m.
Plan Your Visit
Carrie Blake Community Park is located in central Sequim at 202 N. Blake Ave. Street parking along the surrounding blocks fills quickly on Family Fun Days Saturday — arrive before 10 a.m. if you want a close spot, or plan to walk a few blocks from downtown. The festival still needs volunteers for setup on May 1 and parking throughout both weekends; sign up via the “volunteer” button at sequimirrigation.com.
For the Wizard of Oz, Sequim High School is at 301 W. Henderson Rd. — about a 10-minute drive from downtown. If you’re doing the Art Walk + operetta combo tonight, plan to leave downtown by 6:40 p.m. to make the 7 p.m. curtain comfortably.
Full festival schedule and Trashion Show tickets: sequimirrigation.com
Operetta tickets: sequimschools.org
Sources: Sequim Gazette (April 29, 2026)
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