Plaza Dance at the Depot
Saturday, June 4, 2016 from 7-9 p.m.
The Anacortes Depot (611 R Ave)
FREE All-ages Community Dance at the Depot Plaza featuring A’Town Big Band
Anacortes, WA — Come listen and dance to the A’Town Big Band playing swing classics at an outdoor Plaza Dance at the Depot during Waterfront Festival. Join us as we renew the tradition of the fishermen’s “pavement dances” which welcomed the salmon seine fleet and their crews for weekend fun and music after a hard week’s work.
The community will pay tribute to our maritime heritage during this year’s Waterfront Festival. The music will be performed by Anacortes’ A’Town Big Band. Anacortes Brewery will provide a beer garden for those 21 and older.
The location recalls the Great Depression era dances that entertained both locals and up to 1,000 visiting salmon fishermen. This free event takes place Saturday, June 4th, 2016 The Anacortes Depot (611 R Ave). Immediately preceding – at 6 p.m. – will be an opening reception for the Explore Anacortes Waterfront History exhibit at the Maritime Heritage Center, 703 R Avenue.
EXPLORE ANACORTES WATERFRONT HISTORY at the Maritime Heritage Center, 703 R Avenue, June 4, at 6 p.m. followed by Plaza Dance at 7 p.m.
Join us at the Maritime Heritage Center on Saturday, June 4, at 6 p.m. for a casual opening reception of the Explore Anacortes Waterfront History exhibit, followed at 7 p.m. by the third annual Plaza Dance, located next door on the Depot’s brick plaza.
New artifacts and vintage movies from along the waterfront have been added to the Maritime Heritage Center exhibit, including mural-size photographs of cannery row and mill row views from 100 years ago plus the six-foot wooden wheel and telegraph of the ferry Vashon. The exhibit provides an overview of shoreline activities, including boat building, mills and canneries, commercial and recreational boating, and shipping and transport over the seas. Admission to this exhibit is free, while guided tours of the W.T. Preston require a ticket ranging from $3 to $5.
The Anacortes Maritime Heritage Center and W.T. Preston, our National Historic Landmark steamboat, are located on the Anacortes waterfront at 703 R Avenue. The six-days-a-week schedule at the maritime center and Preston runs in June, July and August, Tuesdays through Sundays (closed Mondays).
Information on plaza dance history is available on the museum’s website:
http://www.cityofanacortes.org/Plaza_Dance_History_Annual.pdf