Photo by Marguerite Garth - Jeffro Uitto stands next to his driftwood horse at Woodfest in Tokeland. To see more of his artwork, visit his studio Knock on Wood at www.jeffrouitto.com.
Tokeland's Woodfest event, August 14-15, was swarmed by crowds of art seekers and sightseers. A low estimate of the crowd was around 1,500 on Saturday as they caught the events, carving demonstrations, and vendors located around the Tokeland Hotel.
Tokeland/North Cove Chamber of Commerce Secretary Sandy Prosser attributed the crowds to the excellent weather on Saturday and that everyone wanted to be out and about.
"We had six really great carvers this year," she said. "We had about 40 vendors. We were able to debut our event trailer. The pirates came through with a great ship and they had a little train; it gave the kids something to do. Which was a nice addition. The vendors had excellent sales and turn out."
The vendors sold most of the inventory they had brought to the event and some mentioned they had to pull art pieces from their own collections to sell. The chamber reported that they had sold all of their event t-shirts on Saturday.
The biggest problem for the event was that parking was a bit chaotic since there is not that much room for vehicles at the hotel. The chamber discussed the problem with the CFO of the Willapa Bay Enterprises (Shoalwater Bay Tribe). The casino had many of the event visitors stop by. The Tribe offered the grassy field near the casino for parking and said they could run their shuttle from the parking lot down to the event area.
"Next year we will be organizing a pick up at the casino and a drop-off," Sandy said. "They will run a shuttle for the entire event. We are pretty excited about that. It should alleviate some of the parking issues and allow us to have vendor parking a little bit nearer to the event."
After a successful reopening of Woodfest, the chamber is already discussing next year's events. So far they are planning two main events: the 4th of July Parade and Picnic for July 2, and Woodfest for Saturday-Sunday, August 13-14. They are attempting to plan Woodfest so the timing does not conflict with other local events. Smaller subevents may be planned as the rest of the year progresses.