Olalla Americana Music Festival
The idyllic and rural community of Olalla [“oh-law-lah”] is located just a stones-throw away from Gig Harbor, Port Orchard, and within an easy 20 minute drive across the Narrows Bridge from Tacoma. Though the music is the “draw”; we create an extraordinary festival due to the extras that make this festival truly special including artisan vendors, wonderful food booths, Children’ activities, and a celebration of local pride for showcase a wide range of historical booths like quilters, spinners, and woodcrafters. This year, we will be offering a Beer and Wine Garden for the adults!
After 25 plus years producing one of the best single day festivals in the region, The Olalla Bluegrass Festival, we decided to move in a new direction renaming it: THE OLALLA AMERICANA MUSIC FESTIVAL. The musical experience is Bluegrass, Country, Folk, Rock and the Blues. By doing so, this allows us to continue the support for our community projects such as the Olalla Community Club building restoration, funding local school programs, arts and enrichment in the South Kitsap / Pierce County region. The festival serves as the primary fund-raising event for the Olalla Community Club; a non-profit organization that manages and maintains our 116-plus year-old community hall.
A Typical Day at the Festival:
On festival day, our guests begin to arrive around 10:30 am and continue to stroll-in till the last band closing set at dusk. By 11am, the bands begin to play! Folks settle into their low back chairs or walk around to experience the vendor tents set-up all around the field: We have artisan craft vendors, delicious food booths, raffles, auctions and berry pie sales.
Our annual pie contest, with entries from local pie bakers, begins around 1pm. Entries are presented in the morning, judges are hand-selected from the crowd, and each entry is carefully judged for quality and presentation. The winning pie is then auctioned off to the highest bidder in the afternoon. This is a spirited way to benefit the festival. The berry pie contest is organized by Leah Kellogg. Help by donating home-made berry pie the morning of the festival. It is a wonderful opportunity to share your berries, bring your favorite dough recipe, and add to the spirit of the festival. We will sell pie all day long for $5 a slice to raise money for the renovation projects to the historic Olalla Community Club.
Throughout the day, there is a wide range of demonstration & community information booths showcasing local non-profit organizations and community groups. Many of the demonstration exhibits feature old-time crafts like quilting, spinning, woodcarving in support of these long-lost traditions. And of course, we proudly feature our local history booth where you get to see old photos from Olalla’s past.
However, it’s the music that draws folks each year to our wonderful country festival with its small -town charm. And we cannot imagine a more extraordinary line-up than this year. Go to the band page for line-up.
We look forward to sharing this day in the country with you, where you can relax, take it easy, enjoy the outdoors, and bask in the glow that develops each year in our little slice of heaven. We hope you will join us for years to come as the Olalla Americana Music Festival becomes a new tradition in your life as well as ours!