Colonial Festival to (re)make history this Labor Day weekend

By Matthew Nash • August 29, 2023 1:30 am
Sequim Gazette file photo by Emily Matthiessen / Dressed as British soldiers at the time of the American Revolution, Peter Berneking of Sequim, Thomas House-Higgins of Olympia and Luke Berneking explain about how a three pound ball fits into this particular cannon while Caleb Berneking looks on at the 2022 Northwest Colonial Festival. It returns Labor Day weekend Sept. 31-Sept. 3 to George Washington Inn.
Sequim Gazette file photo by Emily Matthiessen / Dressed as British soldiers at the time of the American Revolution, Peter Berneking of Sequim, Thomas House-Higgins of Olympia and Luke Berneking explain about how a three pound ball fits into this particular cannon while Caleb Berneking looks on at the 2022 Northwest Colonial Festival. It returns Labor Day weekend Sept. 31-Sept. 3 to George Washington Inn.

History comes to life once again at the annual Northwest Colonial Festival this Labor Day weekend.

Organizers shifted the event from mid-August due to planned Hood Canal Bridge closures, and this year it serves as an end-cap to the summer at George Washington Inn, 939 Finn Hall Road, Port Angeles.

Festival grounds open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Aug. 31-Sept. 2, and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 3.

Tickets for the whole weekend are discounted online at colonialfestival.com through Aug. 30. Tickets are: $7 for adults; $4 for military, seniors and teens; and $1 for children ages 2-12.

As per tradition, reenactors recreate life from 1775 and the American Revolutionary War with encampments, demonstrations, hands-on learning, children’s games and activities and more.

Skirmishes between British Regulars and the colonial militia take place Friday-Sunday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Visitors can also see wool and flax spinning, button making, candle making, blacksmithing and hear colonial music and talks about medicine of the times, spies, and other topics.

Some of the participants in making the event happen include the NW Colonial Reenactors Association, Spirit of ‘76 Living History Association, Army of the Columbia Fife and Drums Corps, Daughters of the American Revolution, Sons of the American Revolution, and The Crew of His Majesty’s Royal Navy HMS Chatham.

For more about the Northwest Colonial Festival and its schedule, visit colonialfestival.com.

Sequim Gazette file photo by Emily Matthiessen / Fred Gilbert of Silverdale, with the John Paul Jones Chapter of the Sons of the Revolution, explains how to load a musket to visitors at the Northwest Colonial Festival in 2022. It returns Labor Day weekend Sept. 31-Sept. 3 to George Washington Inn.

Sequim Gazette file photo by Emily Matthiessen / Fred Gilbert of Silverdale, with the John Paul Jones Chapter of the Sons of the Revolution, explains how to load a musket to visitors at the Northwest Colonial Festival in 2022. It returns Labor Day weekend Sept. 31-Sept. 3 to George Washington Inn.

Sequim Gazette file photo by Emily Matthiessen / Bill Huls of the Gilded Thistle, from Renton, plays a stacking game that looks very familiar with three-year-old Aliya Jones at the Northwest Colonial Festival in 2022. It returns Labor Day weekend Sept. 31-Sept. 3 to George Washington Inn.

Sequim Gazette file photo by Emily Matthiessen / Bill Huls of the Gilded Thistle, from Renton, plays a stacking game that looks very familiar with three-year-old Aliya Jones at the Northwest Colonial Festival in 2022. It returns Labor Day weekend Sept. 31-Sept. 3 to George Washington Inn.