FRIDAY JULY 4TH - SUNDAY JULY 6TH: The Wooden Boat Festival is designed to celebrate the maritime heritage of the Northwest, putting tools in hands and getting people out on the water in historic wooden boats. There's nothing stuffy about the wooden boat festival. This is an old-fashioned, down-home waterfront event where everything is fun and most things are free.
Festival Hours:
Friday, July 4th; 10am - 6pm
Saturday, July 5th: 10am - 6pm
Sunday, July 6th: 10am - 6pm
On July 4th, all Wooden Boat Festival activities, docks, and the wharf close to the public at 6pm. Private guests of vessels must pass through a security checkpoint after 6pm; contact your vessel's captain for more details. Lake Union Park is open to the public for viewing the fireworks, with activities and amenities provided by Seafair. To see Seafair's plan for Summer Fourth at Lake Union Park, visit their website.
BOAT REGISTRATION IS NOW WAIT LIST ONLY
Registrations received between June 1st and July 3rd will be placed on the Wait List and accepted on a case-by-case basis. Small boats are encouraged to apply. REGISTER FOR WAITLIST NOW
There are a few major changes to our Festival this year. The biggest one is that we have partnered with Seafair for July 4th, connecting their Gasworks Park programming with Lake Union Park to provide a great fireworks-viewing experience at both ends of the lake. This allows us to focus on the most important aspect of our festival - the boats!
This partnership means that the actual Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival footprint will be smaller - instead of taking up all of Lake Union Park for three days, most of our activities will be on the wharf, on the docks, and in the area directly south of our floating facilities. Less space means fewer vendors - in fact, we will only accept maritime-related booths and vendors this year. Email festival@cwb.org if you have any questions about who qualifies.
Any non-maritime vendors or exhibitors who are interested in participating on July 4th should contact Seafair directly. Click here for information about becoming a Seafair Exhibitor.
While Seafair will be bringing in additional food trucks to serve the crowds on July 4th, we have invited a few of our favorite food providers to be here for all three days of the Wooden Boat Festival. They include: Ballard Brothers Seafood and Burgers, Smokey's BBQ, Lopez Island Creamery, and Celesto Espresso.
We think that this new model will meet the needs of the large July 4th crowd while allowing us to keep having our long-standing Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival on July 4th Weekend. If you have any questions or programming ideas, please email festival@cwb.org.
