Blackberry drinks, pies, slugs

Now in its 27th year, the Bremerton Blackberry Festival will take place Sept. 3-5 in downtown Bremerton.

By Michelle Beahm • September 2, 2016 1:43 pm

Tags: Bremerton

BREMERTON — Now in its 27th year, the Bremerton Blackberry Festival will take place Sept. 3-5 in downtown Bremerton.

“It’s been around a long time, and it seems to grow every year,” said Carol Atkinson, director of the Bremerton Rotary Foundation, which is the sponsor for the festival.

Atkinson said the festival consists of many vendors, serving speciality dishes exclusively to avoid having multiple booths of the same kind from the same company. She also added that there will be about 30 different food booths alone, of all different ethnic groups. Ronald McDonald will attend the festival Sunday from 1-3 p.m., and a McDonald’s Fry Truck will be there Monday, Sept. 5.

“We have people coming from all over,” Atkinson said. “A lot of people plan their vacation around the Blackberry Festival.”

And, of course, Atkinson added, “We have lots of blackberry goodies, including blackberry wine and blackberry beer, and we have blackberry pies, and what they call ‘blackberry slugs.’ People come year after year to get those.”

She said blackberry slugs are basically bar donuts with blackberry filling, covered in powdered sugar.

“They’re a very sweet delicacy,” Atkinson said.

Spanning three days, Atkinson said she’s received estimates of around 25,000 people attending over the course of the festival. She said people can park in the G1 Olympic College parking lot, where attendees can then take a shuttle down to the campus. Or, on Saturday, Sept. 3, there will be $2 shuttles from the Bremerton Airport, which is hosting a fly-in event for the festival.

Atkinson said a Coast Guard C27 will do a flyover during the festival at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. From 2-3 p.m. Saturday, pilots from the Bremerton Airport will hold a flyover.

“We also have a children’s area that has a children’s stage, as well as music and magic and comedy,” Atkinson said, “and we also have STEM activities this year.”

The Blackberry Festival is free to attend. For more information, visit www.blackberry festival.org.