Fairhaven's pug-nacious prognosticator reigns Saturday — wet or dry

BELLINGHAM — Port Townsend has its Rhody Festival. Leavenworth, its Oktoberfest. Seattle, its Bumbershoot, not to mention numerous other ultra-organized, mega-attended and corporate-sponsored circle-your-calendar events.

And for about four or five years now — organizers don't seem to remember exactly — Fairhaven, Bellingham's artsy-historic Southside neighborhood, has hosted its Pacific Northwest Rain Festival. It's an event that couldn't have less in common with the above fetes, fairs and celebrations if it tried.

Here's the lineup for Saturday's events at Fairhaven Village Green: a rain-themed poetry reading and contest (just show up and read whatever you've written); a raingear fashion show with prizes for the most creative, ridiculous, and outlandish; a Reigning Queen who'll determine how many more weeks of precip Fairhaven must endure; and, finally, a conclusion, in which attendees and participants are encouraged to hurry up and leave.

"It's silly and goofy and a whole lot of fun, and about the last thing we want is a well-organized event," says John Servais, who's in charge of the festivities. "The whole idea of this thing is that it's chaos."

Terse, too, says Taimi Dunn Gorman, publicity chairperson.

"We're billing it as one of the shortest festivals in the world," says Gorman. "An hour, maybe a little more. The pug is felt, then everyone heads off to drink or get something to eat."

Pardon? "The pug is felt"?

Yes, well, while Pennsylvania has its Punxsutawney Phil, the weather-forecasting groundhog, Fairhaven's Rain Festival has Mattie. She's a 6-year-old pug owned by Gorman, who's also head madam of the Fairhaven Ladies of the Evening Society, a group of women who pay homage in dress and attitude to Fairhaven's late 19th-century working girls. At noon, the Reigning Queen, herself decked out in Ladies of the Evening attire, lifts Mattie out from underneath the pergola awning, thrusting the pug out into the elements, as it were. Mattie's fur is then felt for wetness or dryness.

"If the pug is wet, we have six more weeks of rain," Servais says. "If it's dry, we have seven. In other words, what's the difference — there's still a whole lot of rain ahead of us."

Along with about 10 to 15 Ladies of the Evening — "It depends on the weather; they really don't like to get their feathers wet," Gorman says — members of Fairhaven's Bowler Hat Society are expected at the festival also. Kind of a male version of the Ladies, the group dons bowler hats in tribute to the Fairhaven men of the 1890s.

The Rain Festival's semi-haphazard approach kind of goes along with Fairhaven's reputation as a place that's always marched to a different drummer. This was a town, after all, renowned at the start of the 20th century for its saloons and sporting houses (brothels) by the dozens, a place whose streets were platted by a stinky old bootlegger called Dirty Dan Harris and a place that boasted a spot along Harris Avenue where unidentified dead folks were placed in the hopes that someone would come ID them and take them away.

Of course, these days Fairhaven is known as a charming neighborhood with unique cafes, shops, restaurants and parks that hark back to those old rough-and-tumble days. Fairhaven Village Green even has a statue of a laid-back Dirty Dan, who looks amused by the tourists drawn to Bellingham's South Side.

Pacific Northwest Rain Festival, 11 a.m. until a little past noon Saturday, features rain-themed poetry, a raingear fashion show — both are open to anyone, just show up with something you've written or want to model — an appearance by the Ladies of the Evening Society and, at noon, the Reigning Queen's holding up of the pug to determine future rainfall. Free.

Where

Fairhaven Village Green is at the corner of 10th Street and Mill Avenue, behind Village Books, in Bellingham. Street parking is available.

To get there: Take Interstate 5 to Exit 250 in Bellingham and go west on Old Fairhaven Parkway into Fairhaven for about 1 mile. Turn right on 12th Street and continue for three blocks to Harris Avenue. Turn left and go straight for two blocks to 10th Street. Turn right, and you're at the park.

More information

360-920-8223 or www.fairhaven.com.

If you've not been to Fairhaven in the 2000s, a visit there now might have you wondering if you're in the right place. It still looks the same; there're just blocks and blocks more of it. Where before were empty lots or grassy fields are now multilevel high-rises and apartment buildings with street-level retail shops and restaurants. Thankfully, most of the new sky-reaching construction retains the original brick-and-sandstone look that's synonymous with Fairhaven. These days Fairhaven is booming in a way that Dirty Dan and his contemporaries had always dreamed about.

The Rain Festival makes a good excuse for a Fairhaven excursion.

"The commercial angle for this event, of course, is that it's an opportunity for people to check out Fairhaven at a time of year when there's no one here," says Servais, who's also editor of www.fairhaven.com, a Web site devoted to all things Fairhaven.

And what if it's sunny on Saturday in Fairhaven on a day specifically set aside to celebrate the rain?

"Then we're on to Plan B, our Cancellation Ceremony," Servais says. "It's exactly the same thing."

Mike McQuaide, a Bellingham-based freelance writer, is a regular contributor to Northwest Weekend.