WASHOUGAL — What’s a pirate to do when their ship isn’t large enough anymore? Find a bigger a ship.
That’s precisely the boat the Washougal Pirate Festival found itself in Saturday as it returned bigger than ever in a new, larger location at Captain William Clark Regional Park at Cottonwood Beach in Washougal.
“This is our fifth year and we’ve been doing it for a while and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger every year,” said AJ Bogue, the president of Washougal Business Association Board of Directors.
Bogue said the festival started with around 100 visitors. This year it was moved from Reflection Plaza in Washougal to Captain William Clark Regional Park because it now sees more than 600 visitors and needed more space to accommodate the growing crowd.
While pirate-themed, the festival also features a dog agility show, a beer garden, several area vendor booths, costume contests (for humans and pets), plenty of children’s games and live music.
It’s like a charcuterie of activities that has something for people of all ages, Bogue said, mentioning event entry doesn’t have any cost (although a $5 donation is appreciated).
“There are just so many things going on for almost no money at all,” he said.
Yet pirates are still the engine of the festival. One woman brought a parrot to the event and plenty of folks dressed in costumes, while also draping their dogs in the proper attire.
Being on water, right next to Cottonwood Beach, boosted the pirate vibes this year. Everyone seems to have their own explanations for why a pirate festival is the right choice to raise funds for the Washougal Business Association, formerly called the Downtown Washougal Association.
Kimberly Harp, who handles sponsors and memberships for the Washougal Business Association Board of Directors, said she was a little stumped on the pirate theme when she first moved to the area about three and half years ago from Texas.
“I don’t know why,” Harp said. “I moved here three and a half years ago, and went to one and was like, ‘all right.’ I really don’t know the answer. I think it’s crazy people in Washougal who like pirates. But I mean, who doesn’t like pirates?”
Jeffrey Vogt, a Portland resident who goes by the pirate name of Jeffrey Blackheart, dressed in costume for the event. He came with a pirate group called Outrageous Fortune, which visits festivals, hospitals and marathons dressed as pirates. The group shot off a cannon at Saturday’s festival. He said pirate fever has been heating up ever since the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films reached theaters.
“The pirate movies and stuff helped. We got kind of popular then,” Vogt said.
Suzanne Grover, the Washougal parks and cemetery manager, has another theory on pirate popularity, something the outlaws of the sea might enjoy hearing.
“I think it’s because they’re naughty,” Grover said of pirates. “They’re just rogue, and there’s always something a little intriguing about being bad. Don’t you think?”
