Changing Places: TrawlerFest Moves From Anacortes to Bremerton

By Peter Swanson

December 19, 2016

First of all, let us say this: We love Anacortes. That’s why we put on a decade of TrawerFests at the Fidalgo Island location, which is almost as close to Vancouver as it is to Seattle. Now we’re moving the show to the old Navy city of Bremerton for the sake of change. The dates for 2017 are May 16-20 at Bremerton Marina.

Like Anacortes, picturesque Bremerton, shown above, is located on one of the fine, protected harbors of Puget Sound and is the gateway to one of the greatest playgrounds in the United States, the Olympic Peninsula, a place of mountains, glaciers, forests, lakes, mountain streams and the Pacific Ocean. Within its corporate limits, Bremerton has the best equipped Navy Yard in the United States, constantly overhauling and repairing warships.

Brokers, vendors and builders lately had urged TrawlerFest organizers to bring the event closer to Seattle as a convenience to them and to draw more attendees from the city. The ferry from Seattle takes an hour and docks a short walk away from the marina.

Download a walking map of Bremerton.

The city of 38,000 has a lively restaurant scene and other amenities. Bremerton’s U.S. Navy Museum features more than 18,000 objects, and the Vietnam War-era destroyer USS Turner Joy is preserved and open for tours at the end of the boardwalk.