SILVERDALE — The Kitsap Peninsula Water Trail Festival is a way to bring to bring the communities together, said Kathleen Knuckey-Gordon, executive director of the Silverdale Chamber of Commerce.

“We have the military, the tribes, the community, our elected officials and basically our Parks and Recreation people all together,” Knuckey-Gordon said. “I just feel like this is just a way to really tie our communities together.”

The festival started a few years ago as a paddle ride called “Ride the Tide,” when John Kuntz, owner of the Olympic Outdoors Center, organized a ride where people kayak together from Bremerton to Silverdale. Knuckey-Gordon said he reached out to the chamber of commerce in 2012 or 2013 in an effort to build a festival around the event, and it took off from there.

“Originally, the festival began kind of like grass roots with Olympic Outdoor Center,” Knuckey-Gordon said. “We partnered with the Water Trail Alliance and Visit Kitsap and the county to get this done, and the ports.”

Since the first Ride to Tide paddle, Kuntz applied for and received a salt-water trails designation for the Puget Sound.

“We have a national water trail, a salt-water trail,” Knuckey-Gordon said. “Nobody else has those.”

The paddle rides — there are four, originating in the Bremerton, Poulsbo, Brownsville and Belfair areas — are only one aspect of the festival, though.

“We’re going to have entertainment on the lawn and that will be nice,” Knuckey-Gordon said. “We have everything from dancing to zumba. We have bands and we have storytelling. There’ll be lots of food and there’s going to be picnic games and fun.”

There will also be opportunities to tour Coast Guard and Kitsap County Sheriff boats; see kayaking and paddle-board demonstrations; visit educational booths talking about the water trails, water safety and the Clear Creek Trail bridge’s impact; face-painting; balloon tying; kids’ bike races hosted by Silverdale Cyclery; and a miniature, four-booth farmer’s market.

“I think what’s going to happen with this festival is it’s going to really help appeal to those people who love the water. (It’s a) great time for family fun, family events,” Knuckey-Gordon said. “Back-to-nature type stuff. It’s people who love recreation who’ll be there.”

One of the major draws, Knuckey-Gordon said, will be the welcoming ceremony performed by the Suquamish Tribe.

“When the kayakers come in … the cultural canoes, they go out and they greet the kayakers and they bring them in and they do the welcoming ceremony,” she said. “It’s a way of welcoming them onto the land.”

Following that, at the start of the celebratory ceremony, the Suquamish Tribe will perform a blessing ritual.

Knuckey-Gordon said that the S’Klallam Tribe performed a blessing at last year’s festival.

“It was just quite, it left such an impression on everybody,” she said. “It literally brought tears to your eyes.”

Next year, Knuckey-Gordon said sponsors have already pledged more support, and the Port of Bremerton has committed to doing a paddle ride between Bremerton and Port Orchard, as well.

“Our hope is that this will become a world-renowned festival,” Knuckey-Gordon said. “We have a big vision for our community and what it can do for (us).

“With all the communications I think we’re having, I just really see this being something phenomenal for our community.”

The Kitsap Peninsula Water Trail Festival will take place from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Silverdale Waterfront Park on Saturday, June 18. For more, visit www.watertrailsfestival.com.