E-mail this article Print this article Other links NWsource Seafair Guide

It's finally here - the weekend all Seattle has been waiting for.

Of course, we're talking about the arrival of Seafair.

You thought Seattle's venerable summer festival would acquiesce to a bunch of bloated-ego baseball All-Stars? As a Seafair pirate might say, "Not a chance, matey!"

Seafair kicks off at noon tomorrow with the annual pirate landing on Alki Beach. But it does so with perhaps less fanfare than at any other time in its 52-year history.

It can be explained this way: Quien es más macho? Barry Bonds o King Neptune?

My oh my, Seafair has a mighty challenge promoting its launch this year. It has been trumped by the hoo-ha leading up to Tuesday's All-Star Game, including this weekend's FanFest baseball carnival at the Stadium Exhibition Center, expected to draw tens of thousands of people each day.

With the All-Star Game putting Seattle in the international spotlight, has provincial Seafair been relegated to the minors?

"I think this town is big enough for both," says Don Kraft, whose long-standing devotion to Seafair was rewarded two years ago when he was selected King Neptune for its 50th-anniversary year. Kraft also was prime minister of Seafair in 1962, the year Seattle hosted the World's Fair.

"Seafair thrived during the World's Fair," Kraft recalls. "The fair drew 10 million people, and the All-Star Game itself will draw only about 50,000."

Before there was Major League Baseball in Seattle - before there was major-league anything in Seattle - there was Seafair, Seattle's annual waking from its hibernation to enjoy the fleeting sunshine. A hydroplane race, a coronation pageant and scores of parades, Seafair became the model around the country for highly local, highly addictive summer festivals.

It has survived even though the climax event, the hydro race, has become more spectacle than sport. It's no coincidence that the best hydroplane competition in Seattle occurs at Safeco Field with computer-generated "hydro races" that play on the scoreboard between innings of Mariners games.

The All-Star Game is bringing sport, entertainment and media celebrities to town. A paean to the national pastime, it also is a cavalcade of commercialism. Even FanFest, designed to spread the All-Star Game's excitement to the commoner who might not be able to afford any of the events inside Safeco Field, charges a minimum admission of $10.

Seafair officials, while careful not to cast the festival as competing with All-Star week, are quick to point out that many of their events - such as tomorrow's pirate landing at Alki and a milk-carton derby at Green Lake - are free to spectators.

Seafair also means tradition.

"I really hope that it is the Seafair extravaganza and not the All-Star Game that represents more of what Seattle really is," says Jim Edwards, the pirates' incoming Captain Kidd.

When the pirates raid the beach on their float, the Moby Duck, they will sing well-worn songs crooned by generations of pirates before them. If nothing else, the songs are more colorful than "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

Moby Duck is our ship of renown

We sail all over town

We don't carry treasure

But get lots of pleasure

Chasing the girls all around.

Seafair, which traditionally kicks off the first weekend after the Fourth of July, wasn't about to change its schedule to avoid the conflict with All-Star Week.

"We've had this schedule going for 50 years, so we weren't going to adjust," says Eric Radovich, Seafair's public-relations director.

About 100 boats are entered in tomorrow's annual milk-carton derby, which usually draws about 30,000 spectators, Radovich says.

"If the weather is great, we'll have our usual crowd," he predicts.

The Seafair event most likely to be affected by All-Star week is tomorrow and Sunday's street fair in the Chinatown International District. Traffic and parking for FanFest is expected to be a bear, which could discourage locals from attending the 26th annual street fair. Parking for the fair is usually dicey anyway, as it shuts down two major streets in the district - Maynard Avenue South and South King Street.

But Carolyn Hyman, marketing coordinator for the district's business-improvement area, figures that for every regular who opts to skip this year's fair, there will be a lookie-loo who will come across it on the way to or from FanFest.

Art Merrick, Seafair's chairman, figures Seattle's thirst for summer entertainment will sustain Seafair this year, as it always has.

"I'm going to be at the All-Star Game," he says. "But I'm also going to the milk-carton derby Saturday and a lot of other Seafair events, too."

"The All-Star Game is a wonderful short-term event that happens once in a long time, and that's fine for Seattle," Kraft says.

"But Seafair is a part of the fabric of this city that involves hundreds of thousands of people participating on a very personal basis. It's just very good, wholesome, affordable entertainment for regular folks."

Stuart Eskenazi can be reached at 206-464-2293 or seskenazi@seattletimes.com.