Water Festival History

The first Coupeville Festival with Native American Canoe Races took place in 1930, organized by a Coupeville businessman to draw more tourists to scenic Whidbey Island. Only three 11-man canoes raced then, but in later years up to 22 tribes attended the festivals, with most participating in the canoe races. Parades, sack races, pie eating contests, and tribal dancing added to the festivities. Island residents baked loaves of bread as gifts for the Indian families who travelled to the Island and camped there.

Keep in mind that before white contact, it is believed that the Northwest Native American population in Puget Sound was between 10,000 and 20,000, and that there was most likely at least one boat for every ten people. That would be 1,000-2,000 canoes out on the Sound on a regular basis.

Fleets of boats would gather for fish runs, at portage sites, in safe harbor during storms, and for defense during warfare. It is not surprising that the gathering of boats led to competitive racing.

To further your perspective, before 1940, the populations of Coupeville, Oak Harbor, and Langley all hovered between 250-350. Also remember that until 1913, there was no bridge to Camano. Until the mid-1920's, there was no ferry service to the islands, and until 1935 there was no bridge at Deception Pass...you got to the islands on a steamer, or you used your own boat.

By 1930, however, cars were becoming common, and Whidbey businessmen were touting the island as a wonderful place to visit and tour by car. The scenery and the views had become the commodity of interest, and the Water Festival was a way to expose people from the cities to the offerings of the island. The Native American canoe races provided the main event, and parades, sack races, egg and spoon contests, pie eating contests, "prettiest baby" contests, tribal dancing, and prize drawings rounded out the festivities.

World War II brought an end to the Canoe Races. There were several attempts to revive them in the 1970s and ‘80s, but it was not until the Washington State University/Island County Beach Watchers volunteers put on the first Penn Cove Water Festival in 1992 that the canoe races were once again an annual event in Coupeville. Beach Watchers produced the Festival for 12 years, with an emphasis on education about the environment and water quality.

In 2004, a group of Whidbey Island community members formed the nonprofit Penn Cove Water Festival Association, to plan and produce the annual event. The Festival takes place on one Saturday in early May, depending on which Saturday has the best tides for the canoe races. The races have expanded to include more categories, including the large family “journey” canoes. The Water Festival provides the setting for Northwest tribes to share their heritage with tribal dancing, singing, storytelling, native artists’ booths and demonstrations, fry bread and salmon cooked over an alder wood fire. And Island residents still bake loaves of bread as gifts for the Indians.

Since 1993, each Water Festival has been indelibly associated with an image from the fertile mind of Coupeville artist Roger Purdue, working in the North Coast native art tradition of his Tsimshian heritage. The donation of Roger’s art talent received the reproduction it deserved in the hands of Carol Peralta, who produced the T-shirts, art prints and posters sold to raise money for the Festival. Her passing in late 2005 was a great loss to the Water Festival and the Island community.

The Native American Canoe Races continue to be the main attraction, local merchants still hope for throngs of mainlanders to visit their shops and use their services, and one of the major commodities remains our scenery and views of the water and surrounding mountain ranges. But with the enthusiasm, expertise, and support of the Beach Watchers and other community members, the festival has also become a celebration of our water resources.

Residents and tourists alike benefit from a healthy Sound, lakes, groundwater, and aquifers. What's more, we all benefit from the salmon, otters, whales, shellfish, and other critters that live in, or because of, those waters.

The contributions of so many individuals and organizations to the Penn Cove Water Festival, both financially and as volunteers, is deeply appreciated. If you would like to help in any way “Continuing the Tradition,” contact the Penn Cove Water Festival Association at P.O. Box 393, Coupeville WA 98239, or individual Association members listed on this site.

So the Water Festival continues. For more information on the tribes that have participated, or how the festival came to be, or how the races turned out in years past, or any number of other festival-related topics, stop by the Island County Historical Museum.