All the Razzmatazz at This Year's Seafair
Hydroplanes are pretty cool, too, you know.
Image: mirounga/shutterstock.com
Love to hate it or hate to love it, Seafair is undoubtedly a Seattle summer mainstay.
Most of the city fixates on the Blue Angels and their roaring engines. But the summer festival has so much more to offer—and not just in terms of loud, fast vehicles, either.
Perhaps you're a transplant flummoxed by the city's odd obsession with this one weekend. Or maybe after many years of exuberant Log Booming, you just need a refresher on one of our city's most bewildering and beloved annual happenings.
No matter why you're a little foggy on the details, here's a primer on what all the fuss is about at this year's Seafair Weekend Festival on Lake Washington. In the meantime, watch out for pirates.
Blue Angels
The US Navy jets taking off from Boeing Field and performing aerobatics above the city are perhaps the weekend's main attraction. We've covered where to watch them in full, but in short: They'll be airborne around 3:30pm on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. They'll make a lot of noise. And, with an array of synchronized aerial moves over Lake Washington, they'll impress the masses.
Hydroplane Races
The Blue Angels draw the headlines, but the boats skimming over the surface of Lake Washington at more than 220 miles per hour can be just as breathtaking. A Boeing engineer honed the propeller that revolutionized this form of water travel in 1950. The Apollo Mechanical Cup will commemorate more than 70 years of hydroplane tilts on Lake Washington with multiple classes of races held north of Seward Park and south of the I-90 bridge. This year's slate also includes races from vintage hydroplanes and kid-piloted J-Hydros. Check the daily schedule and watch from shore or the Log Boom as these vessels go full-throttle, leaving clouds of water in their midst.
Log Boom
Not necessarily an event, but an anticipated scene nonetheless, festivalgoers tie up boats to anchored logs along the perimeter of the hydroplane races and try not to get too tipsy from the on-board vantage point. The bacchanalia conjures the rowdiness of Andrews Bay which, incidentally, is closed for Seafair. Log Boomers with stamina are rewarded with killer views of the Blue Angels and splash-zone hydroplane spectating.
Other Military Jets
Not to be outdone by beloved "Fat Albert," less ballyhooed planes like the US Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon and the Consolidated PBY Catalina amphibious plane-boat hybrid will serve as de facto openers for the Blue Angels. Plus, there will be historic bombers and, weirdly, a Boeing 777-9. Here's the full Boeing Seafair Air Show schedule.
Parachuters
US Army Silver Wings parachute team, a squad of demonstration free-fall parachutists, will jump out of planes on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with all the fanfare of colored smoke and midair acrobatics. Where will they land? You'll have to go to find out.
