Fathoms O’ Fun SOUT H K ITSA P ’S
F E S T I VA L B Y T H E S E A • J U N E 2 3 - 2 5 , 2 0 1 7
C EL EBR AT I NG 50 Y EA RS! • FAT HOMSOF U N.ORG
Fathoms O’ Fun celebration reaches 50 The theme of this year’s parade is ‘50 Years of Rock’N Around The Sound’
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By LESLIE KELLY Kitsap News Group
f you’ve been around Port Orchard for any amount of time, you’ll recognize the name Fathoms O’ Fun. It’s the city’s annual festival and events last all year. But the biggest part — and what most people think of when they think Fathoms — is the parade. This year will be the 50th Fathoms Parade. And this year, there’s a bitter sweetness to the parade. Longtime parade organizer Jessie Turner, who had been in command of the parade for more than 25 years, passed away earlier this year. This year’s parade will honor Turner with her photograph prominently placed on the Fathoms parade float. “I miss her very much,” said Sharron King, Fathoms chairwoman. “We were glued at the hip for 26 years working on the parade. We’ll make it happen without her. But it will be hard. We’ll carry on and have a fine parade — something Jessie would be proud of.” In all, there will be more than 85 units in the parade, including bands, pageant royalty, horses, cars and old military vehicles. It spans about two hours. Parade entries gather at the staging area and line up at least an hour before the parade begins. Then the parade travels the route from Port Orchard Boulevard down to Bay Street and goes north on Bay Street to Bethel Avenue. There are three places along the way where announcers speak to the crowd, at Kitsap Bank, where the BKAT television crew films, and Sidney Avenue and Bay Street, where Pastor Tracy Martin uses his “preacher voice” to call out information, and at the main review station at Port Orchard Ford at 1215 Bay St. Most years, the parade involves about 1,200 people, and several thousands line the route to watch, King said. “We’re one of the best parades in the state,” she said, noting that the committee takes the Fathoms float all over the state to be in other parades. And, in turn, other
Submitted photo
The Fathoms O’ Fun royalty court of 2016 pose prior to the start of the summer parade. parade floats come to Port Orchard, too. This year, the Marysville Strawberry Festival float and the Tacoma Daffodil Festival float will be in the parade, along with five or six other festival floats. On the Fathoms float, there will be another honoree. A photograph of Claude Brown, who has allowed the committee to store the float and other items at his place for years, will be honored alongside Turner. The theme of the 50th parade is “50 Years of Rock’N Around The Sound.” And because this is the 50th year for Port Orchard’s big parade, former queens and princesses will ride in the parade as will this year’s Fathoms Royalty. About 30 former royalty, dating back to 1968, will ride in convertibles and wave to the crowd. Current royalty Junior Princess Veronica Mihai, Senior Princess Mackenzie Wright, Senior Princess Jaimeson Folden, Queen Alainna Widdifield, Duchess Hannah Lai, Junior Princess J’Elaine
Wall, Junior Princess Hailey Chambard will ride in the parade. New this year for the parade is a group of Mexican dancing horses that often perform to mariachi music. The South Kitsap Community Band will also lend music to the event. And throughout the festival, there will be four band concerts. At 6:30 p.m. on Friday, June 23, Ranger & the Re-Arrangers will play at the Port of Bremerton’s Marina Park in Port Orchard, near the Gazebo area. Other concert information is inside this special section. As in the past, there will be the Summer Festival Vendor Show, which includes more than 60 booths of arts and crafts and food throughout the waterfront park area. Hours are noon to 6 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Also at the waterfront will be bouncy toys for the kids to play on, a kids vendor area, and at noon on Saturday kids can partake in goldfish races. “We decided since this was our golden anniversary, we’d race goldfish,” said King. “The kids will be given goldfish that will be placed in open gutters filled with water and then, when the race begins, the kids will blow through straws to move their fish to the finish line.” At noon on Sunday, an old-fashioned
dinghy derby will begin at the end of the pathway near Westbay Center. The dinghies will race in the water down to the gazebo area. “The rules are no ready-made dinghies,” King said. “You can make them out of foam, milk cartons, whatever, but they have to be handmade.” Rules and entry forms are on the Fathoms website at www.fathomsofun.org. At 12:45 p.m., the Eclectic Cloggers will perform at the gazebo. Then at 2:30 p.m. the Windermere Invitational South Kitsap Crew Race will begin. The race starts at the Port Orchard Marina and boats will race toward the park and gazebo, where the finish line will be posted. A complete schedule of events can be found on the Fathoms website. Fathoms has a long history, King said. “There’s always been some kind of festival in Port Orchard,” she said. “It was first called the ‘Days of ‘49.’ That group disbanded. Then, for a year, it was the Sun Festival. But in 1968, a new group formed.” That group, which included long-time Port Orchard residents Oliver Hanley and his wife, named the festival Fathoms ‘O Fun. “It was a couple of couples sitting around one evening that came up with that name, and it just stuck,” said King. Until 1989, the work was done under the direction of the Port Orchard Chamber of Commerce. Then the Fathoms board was formed and the group became a nonprofit of its own. And King said, Fathoms continues the summer fun on the July 4th holiday, with fireworks over Sinclair Inlet. There’s bands, vendors, kids events and clowns during the day beginning at 11 a.m. and continuing through the time the fireworks begin. The fireworks show is paid for by Fathoms and sponsors and donations can be made online at the Fathoms website. The following weekend, July 6 to 9, a carnival will be assembled along the waterfront and in the parking lot near Amy’s on the Bay restaurant. “We decided to bring back the carnival for the 50th,” said King. “To support that, we are giving away carnival tickets to all the kids who register for the goldfish race.”
A Special Supplement to the Port Orchard Independent