A merry 15th annual Juneau Maritime Festival despite the rain

Published 9:30 pm Friday, May 2, 2025

Hundreds of locals celebrated Juneau’s maritime history on slick docks devoid of cruise ships and sun on Saturday.

“I’ve lived in Seattle, Ketchikan, Juneau — if it rains, you just put on your coat and your boots, and you do it anyway,” Lynn Schell, owner of Horse Island Trader, said.

The Juneau Economic Development Council organizes the annual Juneau Maritime Festival. Brian Holst, executive director of JEDC, said the fact it landed on a ship-free Saturday was purely coincidence. The event began with a focus on locals, and although tourists weren’t among the shoppers this year, a record was broken with more than 100 vendors.

“It started meant to be a pre-season event,” he said. “So fun to see friends and people you know enjoying, as much as you can, Juneau weather — celebrating Juneau’s commerce, culture, history.”

Holst said JEDC decided to hold the event on the first Saturday in May when the Alaska Commercial Fishermen’s Memorial’s blessing of the fleet takes place just an hour before. The 35th annual blessing was free from rain but full of holy water.

The Rev. Gordon Blue from the Church of the Holy Trinity gave an invocation while the fishing vessel Lady Ann laid a wreath in the water behind him. After Lady Ann, six more vessels were blessed.

Blue has given the blessing for about a decade. He also fished for more than 30 years in the Bering Sea and was a board member of the Alaska Marine Society Education Association.

“I was and am very committed to marine conservation and safety,” he said. “This is a way to honor the memory of fishermen and also to remind us to continue it.”

A total of 273 names will be carved into the wall next spring.

“May they live forever in our memories,” said Carl Broderson, board member of ACFM, his voice traveling with the sound of bagpipes played by the City of Juneau Pipe Band.

Down the dock, the Yées Ḵu.oo multicultural dance group prepared to welcome the One People Canoe Society. Their arrival usually marks the beginning of maritime festivities, but strong winds forced the paddlers to turn back.

The dance group continued to the stage, opening the event.

Nancy Barnes is the dance leader for Yées Ḵu.oo and could not attend. She told Laa.éi Kathleen John, who has been dancing for 10 years, she would be leading for the first time.

“She had the confidence in me and I felt that,” John said. “I used that when I was up there as a motivation.”

Heather Evoy has also been dancing with the group for nearly a decade. She said she hopes the community receives the message of connecting to land and people from their songs.

“This is a really nice maritime festival,” she said. “I feel like because there are no cruise ships in today, this kind of feels like it’s just for us.”

The event also included a tug-of-war, harbor cruises and concerts. In the afternoon, the U.S. Coast Guard demonstrated a search-and-rescue in Gastineau Channel. A dummy was placed in the water and an MH-60T Jayhawk helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Sitka flew over to rescue it.

Flowers from the blessing of the fleet began to float by as the helicopter circled overhead.

• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz.garrett@juneauempire.com or (907) 723-9356.