List of Seafair community events in King County

Seafair 2010 Indian Days Pow Wow, Seattle, WA photo by Joe Mabel (CC3)

Many people think that Seattle’s Seafair summer festival is the hydroplane races on Lake Washington with the Blue Angels flying overhead during Seafair Weekend in August.

Far from it.

Seafair is a summer-long festival from June through August, with several signature events and many more smaller community events celebrated throughout King County. Some of these community events have been going on since before Seafair was started in 1950.

Others are quite new; perhaps re-envisioned from an older festival and adapted as the local community has changed. We’re nothing, if not pioneers in most things we do in the Pacific Northwest. For historical information and more details, see Seafair Seattle explained.

Seafair Signature Events

Seafair signature events, which might be considered the heart of Seattle’s summer festival, include several key events: (1) The Seafair Pirates Landing on Alki Beach–considered by many to be the official Seafair kickoff for the summer-long festival, (2) the Milk Carton Derby on Green Lake, (3) the Seafair Triathlon, (4) the Torchlight Parade, preceded by the Torchlight Run, and (5) the 3-day Seafair Weekend festival complete with hydroplane races, Blue Angels performance, air show, wakeboard event, pit tours, food and vendor booths, and often with plenty of sun.

If Seafair signature events are the heart of Seattle’s favorite summer festival, then the Seafair sanctioned community events are the soul.

Seafair strongly believes in the power of festivals, parades, and events to celebrate the traditions of our region and diverse residents. Each year, local events are chosen through an application process to be a part of the Seafair Sanctioned Community Events Program. Seafair offers program participants resources and support that include support, training, information, event promotions, as well as operational and administrative assistance.

These neighborhood events are volunteer run from conception and promotion to implementation and cleanup. The primary objective is community and civic pride, all very evident in these fun-filled fairs, festivals, and parades.

Below is the current list of Seafair sanctioned events, listed in order by date of occurence. In parentheses, we’ve noted the event’s inception date as defined on their website.