JOYCE — Sweet wild blackberries in freshly baked pies are always the highlight of the annual Joyce Daze Wild Blackberry Festival, which will return for its 37th year Saturday.
For the uninitiated, Joyce Daze is more than pie. Joyce Daze is an experience, a small town celebration of itself and its berries on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Visitors and residents alike can enjoy a slice — or two — of blackberry pie with their good time.
Highlights of the festival include the pies, a parade, children’s activities, an arts and crafts show, vendor booths, live entertainment and demonstrations, including the Joyce Fire Department presenting a car extrication demonstration at 10:30 a.m. in front of the mini-mall.
The festival’s main attraction is freshly baked pies made with local wild blackberries.
Slices of blackberry pie await consumption by visitors to last year’s Joyce Daze Wild Blackberry Festival. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News) Slices of blackberry pie await consumption by visitors to last year’s Joyce Daze Wild Blackberry Festival. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
Each year, volunteers gather in the local high school kitchen for the two days prior to the event to make more than 200 pies.
Slices of pie topped with ice cream are on sale for as long as they last during the festival. Proceeds go toward scholarships and local projects.
A pie-baking contest also gives local bakers a chance to show off their skills.
Pies must be made with wild native blackberries, which are smaller and sweeter than the Himalayan version that was introduced to the region.
To submit entries for the Blackberry Pie Contest, drop off pies at the Joyce Museum between 9 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. Saturday. Judging will begin at 11 a.m.
Joyce is located 14 miles west of Port Angeles on state Highway 112, which is Washington’s National Scenic Byway.
Highway 112 will be temporarily closed through Joyce from 12:30 p.m. to 2:40 p.m. Saturday for the parade. The closure will run from Joyce Piedmont Road to east of downtown Joyce.
A detour route will be available to bypass Joyce during that time. For information about the closure, contact John Kent at 716-880-6695.
The annual festival kicks off at 7 a.m. with a pancake breakfast at the Crescent Grange and lasts until 3:30 p.m. with a raffle of prizes donated by local businesses.
Entertainment begins at 10 a.m. Local bands will be featured throughout the day in front of the Joyce Museum.
The entertainment is organized by Dave and Rosalie Secord of Luck of the Draw.
Here is the day’s schedule of events:
• 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. — Pancake breakfast at Crescent Grange, 50725 Highway 112.
• 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. — Blackberry pie sales at the Joyce Museum; vendor booths open on state Highway 112.
• 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. — Equipment demonstrations by Joyce Fire Department and Lower Elwha Police Department.
• 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. — Submit pies for judging at the Joyce Museum, 50883 Highway 112.
• 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. — Children’s activities at the lumber yard east of the Joyce Museum; live entertainment at the Joyce Museum.
• 10:30 to 11 a.m. — Fire extrication demonstration at Joyce Fire Station, 51250 Highway 112.
• 10:30 a.m. — Parade judging at Crescent School, 50350 Highway 112.
• 11 a.m. to noon — Pie judging at the Joyce Museum.
• 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. — Salmon bake by the Crescent Bay Lions Club at the mini mall.
• 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. — Grand parade on Highway 112.
• 3 p.m. — Raffle drawing.
For more information, email joinus@joycedaze.org or go to joycedaze.org.
