Your weekend-by-weekend guide to summer fun around Seattle

Webster defines it this way:

Summer ‘sum-ur n 1: the season between spring and autumn comprising in the northern hemisphere usu. the months of June, July and August or as reckoned astronomically extending from the June solstice to the September equinox.

But here’s a definition that better suits Seattle:

Summer ‘sum-ur n 1: the short season starting with the U District Streetfair when locals wear cargo shorts and flip-flops (var.: sandals with white socks) even if the temperature doesn’t get out of the 50s; warmer and drier for a few weeks starting July 5, when denizens indulge in what’s known provincially as “swimming”; 2: when The Mountain is out; 3: the season we live for.

So, as you might surmise, summer weekends here count.

You’ll find monthly calendars of festivals and events throughout the season. Use them for long-range, big-picture planning. But if you’re a busy, modern, traffic-challenged Puget Sounder looking for the best bets for a particular summer weekend — any weekend — here’s where we pander to you:

 

MAY

May 13-15 weekend

Show how serious you are about pushing the envelope. Take a pre-summer swim at Pop Mounger Pool in Magnolia, the first Seattle Parks and Recreation outdoor swimming complex to open for the season. There are two pools, one with a 50-foot corkscrew slide (be sure your suit is tied on well; some of us have had problems) and a smaller pool for kids. Even when the outside air is 55, the big pool is heated to a comfy 85.

And don’t forget: Whether you’re Spandexed on a racing cycle with tires like spaghettini or wearing the aforesaid cargo shorts and piloting a whitewall-tired cruiser bike, Bicycle Sundays are a wonderful Seattle thing. Lake Washington Boulevard closes to cars along one of the city’s most scenic stretches of lakefront. Look for eagles in Seward Park.

May 20-22 weekend

If a street fair can have street cred, here you go. The University District Streetfair claims to be the longest-running street fair in America, growing out of a 1970 festival that sought to heal rifts caused by the Vietnam War. Here’s where to get your henna tattoo, hear the Northwest’s best buskers or buy jewelry made of organic camomile fiber and sustainably harvested beach glass.

And don’t forget: Bring your labradoodle, chiweenie or Heinz 57 to Petapalooza at Auburn’s Game Farm Park on May 21.

May 27-30, Memorial Day weekend

You’ll know for sure that summer is on its way when you make your pilgrimage (Pilgrim hat optional) to Northwest Folklife Festival at Seattle Center (Friday through Monday). New to town? Here’s the best place to tune into Seattle’s organo-hip cultural chakra. This year’s theme is the power of the human voice through song. Expect everything from sea chanties to lullabies to beatboxing.

And don’t forget: Feed your other chakra at TankFest Northwest, May 30 in Everett, showcasing military vehicles and cannons, remote-control tanks and more.

JUNE

June 3-5 weekend

The Edmonds waterfront with its sandy beach is a pleasant place any time, but this weekend adds tours of classic yachts and a close-up look at hotshot hydroplanes during the Edmonds Waterfront Festival, Friday through Sunday.

And don’t forget: Pagdiriwang Philippine Festival, with lumpia, dancing and more, at Seattle Center, and Seattle Pet Expo, at the convention center.

June 10-12 weekend

Seattle’s premier celebration of African-American culture, Festival Sundiata, is at Seattle Center. Look for drum lines, dance, gospel choirs and the best of local jazz and contemporary music.

And don’t forget: Evergreen Mountain Bike Festival in Issaquah; Maple Valley Days and the Marysville Strawberry Festival.

June 17-19 weekend

The true start of summer is celebrated with the Fremont Festival, June 17-19, and Solstice Parade, 3 p.m. June 18, Seattle’s funkified tribute to the forces of nature. Expect food, music, craft booths and rolling works of weirdness called Art Cars. The parade has elaborate costumes, giant puppets and handmade floats, led by a famous flotilla of unofficial but count-on-them-showing-up cyclists whose body paint is their only costume.

And don’t forget: Washington Brewers Festival, in Redmond, where you can take Dad on Father’s Day to sample more than 400 beers from 105 breweries.

June 24-26 weekend

Help the Greenwood District recover from a tough start to the year with a June 25 visit to one of the Northwest’s biggest bashes for automobile lovers, the Greenwood Car Show, which boasts “a mile and a half of classic rides” — everything from tricked-out hot rods to perfectly restored American land yachts of the 1970s.

And don’t forget: Seattle PrideFest (June 25-26) and Pride Parade (11 a.m. June 26), and Shoreline Arts Festival.

JULY

July 1-4, Independence Day weekend

The Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival is a classic Fourth of July-weekend event in Seattle, on the same lake where the big fireworks show is staged, so it’s like a one-stop shopping center. Lots of salty craft on display, and fun stuff like the contest where you build a boat in 24 hours, then race it the next day.

And don’t forget: July 4 fireworks and community celebrations, from Seafair Summer Fourth to Tacoma Freedom Fair.

July 8-10 weekend

Summertime community festivals kick in like afternoon thunderstorms in the convergence zone. Many choices this weekend, from Mercer Island Summer Celebration (with boat rides around the island) to Kent Cornucopia Days (can you say “fun run”?) to Ballard SeafoodFest (you can almost smell the alder-smoked salmon already) and more.

And don’t forget: The buzz around the Arlington Fly-In, July 7-9, and the Seattle International Beerfest, a heady experience, July 8-10.

July 15-17 weekend

Do a few fun runs and you’ll have earned a pigout at the Bite of Seattle, Seattle Center’s annual festival of foodstuffs. Try a multicourse tasting meal from Seattle’s favorite restaurants for $12 at The Alley.

And don’t forget: The colorful Seafair Pow-Wow Days, showcasing Native American culture, food and dancing, and the pickin’ and grinning Darrington Bluegrass Festival, marking its 40th year, around the community that braved the Oso landslide.

July 22-24 weekend

Love a parade? It’s your weekend: Greenwood Seafair Parade, West Seattle Grand Parade and Chinatown Seafair Parade.

And don’t forget: Capitol Hill Block Party, Renton River Days and Des Moines Waterland Festival.

July 29-31 weekend

It’s the Eastside’s big summer arts event, the prestigious, juried Bellevue Arts Museum ARTSfair (in its 70th year), teamed with a couple of other arts-and-crafts fairs that crowd downtown Bellevue.

And don’t forget: Pacific Northwest Scottish Highland Games & Clan Gathering, in Enumclaw, and the Seafair Torchlight Parade.

AUGUST

Aug. 5-7 weekend

It’s time for THUNDERBOATS-THUNDERBOATS-THUNDERBOATS (cue the echo machine). (And where is Pat O’Day when we really need him?) If you’re a newbie needing total immersion in a unique Seattle summer ritual, head for Lake Washington’s shores for SEAFAIR WEEKEND (oops, the caps key stuck again). That means unlimited hydroplane races (oh, and there’s an air show). Go. See. Drink a beer or six.

And don’t forget: Magnolia Summerfest and Salmon­Fest Seattle.

Aug. 12-14 weekend

More Eastsiders kick up their heels (or waggle their flip-flops) with Kirkland Summerfest and North Bend’s Festival at Mount Si.

Aug. 19-21 weekend

Seattle’s northern neighbor comes of age. Help mark the city of Shoreline’s 21st birthday during Celebrate Shoreline. Appropriately, there is a beer garden — along with music, a car show, a sand-castle contest and more.

And don’t forget: Snoqualmie Railroad Days. And we can’t not mention the Zucchini Races at Redmond’s Saturday Market. If the suburbs aren’t your thing, there’s always Seattle Tattoo Expo.

Aug. 26-28 weekend

Need a Tilt-a-Whirl fix? It’s opening weekend of the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe. There’s a rodeo, car races, “crazy animal races” and much more.

And don’t forget: LeMay Car Show in Tacoma, with more than 1,000 vintage vehicles, and TibetFest at Seattle Center.

 

SEPTEMBER

Sept. 2-5, Labor Day weekend

It’s Bumbershoot time at Seattle Center. The annual festival of music, arts and culture has headliners including Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, and Death Cab for Cutie. Also look for an early opener in Puyallup for this fall’s Washington State Fair. (You can do it at a trot or you can do it a gallop.)

And don’t forget: It’s Vintage Aircraft Weekend at Everett’s Paine Field.

Sept. 9-11 weekend

Puget Sound Bird Fest brings birding enthusiasts, wildlife photographers and artists to Edmonds for a weekend of guided walks, tours and boat rides.

And don’t forget: Newcastle Days at Lake Boren Park, and the Live Aloha Hawaiian Cultural Festival at Seattle Center.