PORT ANGELES — The Dungeness Crab Festival returns to downtown Port Angeles this weekend for its 24th year, now with a new name and focus on civic engagement. The free event runs Friday through Sunday, offering fresh seafood, live music, cooking demos, vendors, and family activities.

This year’s festival marks a transition. It’s being run as a non-profit with a board of directors. That group of local business and civic leaders rebranded the event.

Rose Thompson is the executive director of the festival now.

“We realized that there was a big danger that this festival was going to disappear if somebody didn’t step in and help it out a little bit. So, we decided to do that. And since then, we’ve built up this really amazing board,” said Thompson. “So, we have a board of 11, most of them are actually stakeholders and the event. We have representation from the Red Lion Hotel, we have representation from Black Ball Ferry Line, from the port, from the Chamber of Commerce, on our board. It’s a really great collection of people.”

Organizers have introduced changes like a timed crab dinner pickup on Saturday to reduce waiting times, with the possibility of expanding this system in 2025. The free-to-attend event encompasses a large tent in the Red Lion Parking lot downtown Port Angeles as well as City Pier and the Gateway Center.

“One of our priorities was to just really make this festival fun again, to try to give more offerings and get the family down there to hang out for the day. So, one of the really early decisions that we made was partnering with the Juan de Fuca Foundation. They booked all of our music. So we have three days of just this amazing music lineup across three stages. It’s all totally free to attend,” said Thompson.

The event features plenty of different food options beyond crab too. The “grab a crab” event is back. There’ll also be plenty of vendors. The festival runs 11 am- 9pm Friday and Saturday and 11 am – 5 pm on Sunday. Complete schedules are available online at crabfestival.org.