The Manchester Festival

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This year's inaugural Manchester Festival, descendent of the former Manchester Streetfair and Thunderfest, took place on August 16th from 10am until 3pm in the Port Commission parking lot next to the Manchester Library. In all, the festival featured around twenty booths of children's activities, games, swap meet items, home-made crafts, delicious food, and information on various topics. The Friends of the Manchester Library held a book sale, and library staff ran a children's craft booth, organized a children's Parade, and even arranged a visit from the famous Barnaby Bear!

The children's parade was, as always, a major highlight of the festival. Held at noon and lead by the children's librarian from Kitsap Regional Library's Central branch and Barnaby Bear himself, the parade showcased princesses, strange and unusual characters, decorated bicycles, dogs wearing their best clothes, and even an entire traveling farm scene complete with tractor, wagon, settlers and a goat! Head to our online photo album for a glimpse of the fun.

At three o'clock, the clang of a cowbell announced the close of a very competitive silent auction, followed by the long-awaited raffle drawing to determine the winners of a beautiful cedar chest, a wooden bench, and a crocheted beadspread, each of which had been up for raffle for months by the Friends of the Library as a fund raiser and had developed quite an enthusiastic fan club. (Click here to view the results of both the silent auction and the Library raffle, and to find out who won the MCA's Jelly Bean guessing game.)

Many thanks to Brien Nagli for all of the energy and resources he and his family lent to helping set up and break down the festival, for running a mouth-watering BBQ and for donating the proceeds to the MCA. Thanks also to the donors of our silent auction items: Brian Moore for the aluminum skiff, and Sam Brown for the 15" monitor; and to our Music Director, Susan Lee, and her fellow musicians for providing beautiful, live acoustic music. We would also like to express our sincere appreciation to Peninsula Subaru for their continued financial support; to volunteer Martha Hughes for her time, enthusiasm, and great ideas; and, of course, to the Manchester Library, its Friends, and Alden Lee for organizing the Children's Parade and bringing us Barnaby Bear.