The 9th Annual Richmond Maritime Festival returns to the historic Britannia Heritage Shipyard from Aug. 10 to 12.
Crabby the Crab, the Shipheads and a crew of other entertainers are being lined up for the three-day festival.
Maritime-themed décor, spontaneous performances and exhibits will be available for free.
The City of Richmond organizers promise that visitors will continually find new surprises as they wander through the 3.5-hectare (8.5-acre) national historic site on the Steveston waterfront.
Apparently bigger that last years festival, it will kick off with a new evening concert from 7 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 10.
A tribute to the rich multicultural mosaic that originally populated the Steveston waterfront, the concert will feature drumming, music and other performers.
Throughout the weekend, festival goers will be entertained by music, roving performers, painters, wood carvers, potters, stilters, puppets, storytellers, dancers and drummers.
Visitors are encouraged to bring their picnic blanket and partake of the food vendors while taking in the sights and sounds of the festival.
Festival activities continue from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 11, and Sunday, Aug. 12.
As well as the entertainment, down at Britannias 190-metre long dock, a flotilla of beautiful boats and ships will be available for viewing and boarding. Visitors can also tour many of the historic buildings, several of which have been restored to reflect their original roles in the West Coast fishing industry. Other exhibits include the Chinese Bunkhouse, which re-imagines the cramped living quarters that were home to hundreds of Chinese workers employed in the 14 fishing canneries that once dotted the Steveston waterfront.
Inside the original shipyard building, visitors can check out the storied MV Fleetwood, once the fastest boat on the West Coast, with a notorious past as a rum-runner during American prohibition when Canadian alcohol was smuggled by the boatload into the U.S.
