kick ass fantastic photo by Cap’n Surly [flickr] from our group pool [#]

There were several reasons why we chose Alki Beach as the setting for our first apartment in Seattle, including:

1. Walkable market (of course it closed the day before we moved here)
2. Great bars (they’re okay)
3. Lots of food choices (we hardly ever eat here any more)
4. Great view (okay, that one is still valid)
5. Fun beach activities, including one Seattle Music Festival ostensibly held in August which hasn’t occurred since 2004.

Now that’s not to say there aren’t great things in West Seattle, because there are and we do like living over here. However, we are a little less starry-eyed about our chosen locale these days and a little more get-off-my-lawn-ish.

Anyway. About that music festival, I started to wonder if it was ever going to happen again and so I started to poke around. The non-profit behind the Seattle Music Festival, Northwest Program for the Arts’ (NPA) Web site claims they are still planning a 2008 festival:

The Next Seattle Music Fest will be held August 10, 11, and 12, 2008

but clearly that is not happening. That is, after all, next week. So, putting on my Nancy Drew hat, I called the phone numbers that were listed on the site, only to find out that both have been disconnected. How curious.

The Internet reveals that at some point NPA got completely sidetracked by raising money for the refurbishment of the Statue of Liberty on Alki [sl, wsh]. Funneling their fundraising efforts towards that project seems to have derailed at least a couple of years of the festival. However, last summer, the NPA’s part of the fundraising was finalized and the continued funding of the statue was taken over by a non-profit (Sealady.org) dedicated solely to that goal. Also around that same time – and the time the recast statue was replaced [wsb] – the head of NPA, Adam Sheridan, stepped down and was replaced by Ezra Graziano and Holly Santos. Since then, which was around September of 2007, there has been nothing. No updates, no news from NPA or any of our local papers.

What gives? Shall I call some meddling kids and have them find out if Old Man Wickles is keeping the beach fest-free? Who has the scoop?

Riding the bus home last night was a little bit of an adventure. Not in usual way – although there was some of that as well – but in the fact that riding through West Seattle was a little surreal. First, there were a few police vehicles and a fire engine at the gas station at the corner of Admiral and California. When I looked out the window, I could see at least 5 men tending to one woman, who was sitting up against the station wall holding something to her head. A scene that reminded me somewhat of my Memorial Day weekend. The bus trundled on and I got back to Julia Child’s Life in France.

A few minutes later when we arrived at the last stop on Alki, I disembarked the bus to a large crowd of teenagers. It was after 11 so I was a little shocked. Not that I think teens can’t be out at that hour, but that the beach park closes at 11. Huh. As I turned towards home, I saw a huge crowd of people and several police cars and heard the worst ear-piercing noise that I think the police were using to disperse the crowd. I should have tried to figure out what was going on, but with the bull horn announcements for people to leave, I just turned on my street and went home.

West Seattle Blog reported yesterday that there was some end of the school year shenanigans at Alki around 8 p.m., but otherwise there’s no mention anywhere of what was going down last night. That can’t be the same thing, can it? Anyone have a clue what was up?