331 Things to Do in Port Angeles – #27 Cold Beer & Crustaceans
(updated June 2019)
Get a taste of Port Angeles’ fall flavor at the annual Arts & Draughts Beer & Wine Festival and the Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival.
Two must-visit fall weekends flowing with craft beer, Washington wine, live music, art and over 14,000 lbs. of fresh crab in Port Angeles, Washington.
Two annual fall festivals — Arts & Draughts Beer Festival and the Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival — create two great excuses for a fall three-day weekend getaway to the Olympic Peninsula and Olympic National Park.
The Annual Arts & Draughts Beer and Wine Festival – Every September
Beer festivals are a common phenomenon within the Pacific Northwest’s beer-rich scene, but this five-year-old craft beer, wine, and cider festival is a little different. Downtown Port Angeles’ art scene is the ideal backdrop for a block party in the streets with live music. The Arts & Draughts Beer and Wine Festival features an outdoor street fair with food vendors, plus artists and crafters selling unique handmade items and original pieces of art, too.
Over 20 regional breweries, wineries and cideries will be serving up special releases and seasonal varieties throughout the weekend. The music-in-the-streets scene kicks off on Friday with concerts, and beer and wine tasting from breweries and wineries across Washington State.
“Bringing high-caliber music acts paired with an amazing selection of craft beverages, crafters and artists is unique for a town of our size,” says Angela Oppelt, co-owner of the Next Door Gastropub in downtown Port Angeles and one of the brains behind the beer festival. “Arts and Draughts is made possible by a handful of community-loving volunteers working year-round to provide a fun and unique experience for the people of Port Angeles and our visitors who love beer, wine, art and live music.”
This event is a fundraiser for the Port Angeles Downtown Association, which supports its on-going mission to promote a healthy and prosperous downtown. Downtown Port Angeles shops and restaurants and bars will be offering special deals and discounts throughout the weekend and staying open late for after-hours events.
Extra tasting tokens, daily and multi-day passes are available. Weekend passes are available at the festival and include a commemorative tasting mug, front-row access to the live bands and a five-token tasting package. Join us in September for the Arts & Draughts Festival!
The Annual Dungeness Crab and Seafood Festival – Every October
On the banks of the Strait of Juan de Fuca in downtown Port Angeles, thousands of pounds of crab are caught and served up for this annual seafood festival, named as one of the most acclaimed seafood festivals in North America. Last year, attendees noshed on over 14,000 pounds of fresh Dungeness crab. You can also fill your plate with a variety of fresh-from-the-sea seafood options ranging from oysters and mussels to clam chowder and even geoduck sashimi, a hard to find delicacy.
“The Port Angeles Dungeness Crab and Seafood Festival is different from other Pacific Northwest crab and seafood festivals. All of the Dungeness crab for our event is caught by local fishermen in traditional fishing grounds on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Dungeness Bay, and at nearby Discovery Bay, home of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe” says Scott Nagel, executive director of the Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival, “The crab is caught and served as fresh as possible.”
In addition to filling your belly with seafood, enjoy a host of events focused around culinary and cuisine, and family fun. Special guests include celebrity and other notable chefs who cook up Olympic Coast Cuisine using fresh, local ingredients every year.
The kids will dig the popular grab-a-crab tank derby where they can fish for their own crab – and keep it if they catch a tagged one! Live music, a chowder cook-off, a marine debris art exhibit, rowing demos, and a 5K run along the Port Angeles waterfront round out the long weekend of crab-inspired events.
To beat the crab-hungry crowds, plan on arriving on Thursday evening and dig in on Friday starting at noon. Not only will you have a bit more elbow room, but you will also save a little off hotel room rates and crab dinner tickets. Sunday is also a good day to attend with less people and a full day of culinary experiences happening from 9 A.M. until 5 P.M.
This is a free event. Crab dinners can be purchased at the festival or in advance. Pets are not allowed in the food tents, but welcome in the vendor area and around the rest of the festival.
And don’t worry, they never EVER run out of crab. Crabfest with us!
