Port Angeles Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival

Friday thru Sunday, October 12-14, 2012 ~ Free Admission ~ Downtown Port Angles, WA

The Dungeness Crab

Renown in culinary circles the world over, the Dungeness crabs is named for the Dungeness Valley right here on the North Olympic Peninsula. What better way to honor our delicious local crab than to eat a LOT of it?

Seafood Festival Details

The festival begins a 4:00 p.m. Friday with the Community Crab Feed. Come to the big tent and dig in! You’ll get $5 off fresh crab dinners and there will also be wine, beer, coffee, desserts and live music.

Throughout Saturday and Sunday, the Crab Fest cooking demos will give you a chance to learn how to make some great seafood recipes. This year’s special guest chefs are Becky Selengut, the author of Good Fish, and Garret Schack, Executive Chef of Vista 18 in Victoria, B.C. They and Olympic Peninsula chefs will show you how it’s done, including how to correctly clean and cook a whole crab.

Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival Port Angeles

A healthy helping of fresh local seafood at the Port Angeles Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival

When you come to downtown Port Angeles, you can’t miss the big tent. That’s where to go to get a big plate of freshly cooked delicious seafood. And just outside, the main stage will keep the live music going all weekend long.

On City Pier, more than 50 craft, merchant and food vendor booths will be set up for you to shop, eat (more!) and peruse. City Pier is also the place to go for the fun and daring of the the grab-a-crab tank derby. The Feiro Marine Life Center is right there, too. Kids and adults enjoy the exhibits, especially the touch tank with live sea creatures. Both Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. everyone like to get a good spot on the pier and its tower to see the exciting U.S. Coast Guard air-sea rescue demonstration.

For those with a slight competitive streak, there’s a Hollywood Beach volleyball tournament Saturday and Sunday and a 5K fun run on Saturday.

Sunday’s Crab Revival and Sunday Brunch serves up a fine breakfast menu from 9-10:30 a.m. and there’s a non-denominational service with live gospel music.

Olympic Peninsula Wineries are proud to be a major sponsor of this annual event celebrating our fresh local seafood. Be sure to stop by the Crab Festival Wine & Beer Garden to taste wines from all eight wineries.

There’s a Crustacean for Everyone

New England has lobster. Baltimore has blue crab smothered in Old Bay. The Olympic Peninsula has Dungeness Crab.

Lobster is lovely and blue crab delicious, but there’s nothing like Dungeness Crab. Celebrate this delectable crustacean during the 2011 Dungeness Crab and Seafood Festival in Port Angeles, WA, October 8 and 9.

Eat crab and drink Washington Wines made on the Olympic Peninsula at the Dungeness Crab Festival, October 8-9, 2011.

Olympic Peninsula Wineries will be there, pouring selected Washington Wines at the Wine and Beer Garden at Crab Central. Drop by anytime between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. to sample our wines. Feel free to ask the pourers which wines they think go best with Dungeness Crab. You may be surprised by how many options there are.

Dungeness crab can be prepared as many ways as there are chefs to cook it. It is amazing on its own, and it makes a wonderful ingredient. As in past years, cooking demonstrations are a highlight of the Crab Festival. This year, see:

  • The Galloping Gourmet (aka Graham Kerr) demonstrate how to make his famous crab cakes.
  • Chef Les Chan from Victoria, B.C. prepare Imperial Crab Spring Rolls.
  • Chef Jon Unruh of Wildfire Grill in Port Angeles prepare Dungeness Mac & Cheese – the ultimate comfort food.
  • Chef Kaleb Walace of Michael’s Seafood and Steak Restaurant in Port Angeles prepare Fresh Pasta with Chanterelle Mushrooms and Dungeness Crab with Olympic Cellars Chardonnay Butter.

The Dungeness Crab Festival is also a Seafood Festival, and several regional chefs will demonstrate how to make some of their favorite seafood dishes. See:

  • Chef Arran Stark from Cultivated Palette Catering and Brassica Restaurant in Port Townsend show people just what can be done with Salmon.
  • Chef Gabriel Schuenemann of the Alder Wood Bistro in Sequim prepare Scallop Ceviche with pickled Chanterelle Mushrooms.
  • Chef Ron Anderson of Etta’s Seafood in Seattle prepare Cider steamed Blueshell Mussels and smoked hamhock.

Even more chefs will demonstrate how to prepare even more dishes. For a complete list of the Dungeness Crab and Seafood Festival Chef Demonstrations, please see Crab Fest.

You’ll come away from the 2011 Dungeness Crab and Seafood Festival well fed and armed with new recipes and Washington Wines to enhance them. Now that’s a weekend well spent.

Please see Dungeness Crab Festival for additional information.

The Days of Crab and Wine

Do you like to cook?

Do you like to eat Dungeness Crab?

Do you like Washington wine?

If your answer to the above questions is “yes”, then you’ll love the upcoming Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival and Wine Tour, October 9 and 10, 2010.

In addition to an on-going crab feed, cooking demonstrations will help spectators make the most of their crab, and wine tastings will help you learn which Washington wines work best with Dungeness Crab. It is guaranteed to be an exciting weekend, all around. See you there.

Dungeness Crab & Shrimp Cakes

Bring home a bottle of Washington Wine from the Olympic Peninsula to enjoy with your crab cakes.