Press Room

Click here for printable poster.

The 2010 Festival!

The festival will again feature the popular New Old Time Chautauqua vaudeville troupe and many local bands and musicians. More than a hundred exhibitors will showcase green technology, green products, environmental education and local handmade crafts. Leading authorities will lead hands-on workshops and educational forums.       
       “The festival brings citizens together with civic leaders, environmental educators and green businesses in a fun-filled festival atmosphere,” said Kitsap County Commissioner Steve Bauer. “We’ll have lots of fun stuff for the kids, including clowns, magic shows, puppet shows, parades, jugglers, FIN – a walk-in mobile salmon, and an all-ages trash art contest. Families come for the fun and leave equipped to help their communities move toward a more sustainable future.”
       “Sustainability, our theme, is at risk of becoming an overused cliché, but the reality is more urgent than ever,” said Bauer. “We can’t have a sustainable economy without a sustainable environment. And people really want to be good stewards of their environment. They’re looking for ways to help. We see our role as connecting people with some our most exciting problem solvers in an atmosphere of fun and family entertainment.”

Gene Bullock, Feb 24, 2010

Previous Year's Festivals

The second annual Port Gamble event offers entertainment along with vendor and information booths. The phrase “sustainable lifestyle” conjures up images of solar panels, residential roofs converted into vegetable gardens, electric cars and possibly even a wardrobe made entirely from recycled materials. So what to expect from a festival centered around this concept? Well, everything mentioned above and more. This weekend the second annual Great Peninsula Future Festival is happening in Port Gamble, and based on its success the past two years, event organizers hope to make it a tradition for years to come. What makes this festival different from all the others in the area is its message: Living a sustainable lifestyle is much more obtainable than some may think.

Read Complete Article             (Kitsap Sun Brynn Grimley 8/1/09)

Sustainability Festival PromotesGreen Lifestyle with Family Fun
Volunteer-organized community service event
The Great Peninsula Future Festival, August 1-2, 2009, in historic Port Gamble, was conceived as a fun way to involve the whole community in thinking about sustainability and how our lifestyle choices affect the future health of our communities, our economy and our environment.

The festival grew out of a 2007 conference on sustainability, involving some 60 Kitsap community leaders. Sponsored by West Sound Conservation Council and led by Rep. Larry Seaquist (Gig Harbor), the brainstorming workshop involved area mayors, legislators, county commissioners and leaders from many Kitsap community organizations.

“Interest was so high, I decided we needed a way to keep the conversation going and involve the rest of the community,” said Kitsap County Commissioner Steve Bauer. “I invited other Kitsap community leaders to join me in organizing an annual festival with sustainability as its theme. The response was amazing. Dozens of community leaders volunteered.”
“Our goal is to bring citizens together with community leaders, public officials, environmental educators and green entrepreneurs in a festival atmosphere,” explained Bauer. “Our vision was to get people to come for the fun and leave realizing we all need to do our part to create a sustainable future.”

Last year’s Great Peninsula Future Festival drew some 5,000 attendees and hosted 110 green exhibits. It featured such speakers as Congressman Jay Inslee, State Senator Phil Rockefeller, State Representative Larry Seaquist, Kathy Fletcher of People for Puget Sound and authorities on a variety of related topics, including alternative energy, sustainable gardening, buy local campaigns and sustainable business practices.

Read complete article           (Kitsap Peninsula Visitor and Convention Bureau Gene Bullock 2009)

As 11-year-old Maddie Roszak decorated her "American" cardboard fish, the funky vocals of blues singer Alice Stuart filled the Sunday afternoon air during the first Great Peninsula Future Festival.

By all measures, the festival was a success for its first year, said organizer Sandra Bauer, sister of Kitsap County Commissioner Steve Bauer.

Continual music emanated from two stages at opposite ends of an open field in Port Gamble. Other stages featured speakers and how-to workshops for adults. There were exhibits by environmental groups, clean-energy companies and food vendors. One area was set aside just for kids.

Read Complete Article            (Kitsap Sun Christopher Dunagan 08/02/2008)

Festival Lines Up Full Slate of Entertainment and Information
The Flying Karamazov Brothers, a comedy troupe that combines music, theatrics and juggling, will entertain participants during the first Great Peninsula Future Festival, Aug 2 and 3 in Port Gamble.

The goal of the two-day event is to help people learn to live "sustainably" with a smaller footprint on the environment, organizers say, but they are just as determined to keep the atmosphere light so that everybody has fun.

"We want families to come for the fun and take away ideas they can use in their own neighborhoods and communities," said Kitsap County Commissioner Steve Bauer. "We'll have lots of activities for kids — including clowns, magic, puppet shows, storytellers, jugglers, mask-making, a walk-in mobile salmon and a trash art contest."

Read Complete Article          (Kitsap Sun Christopher Dunagan  06/21/2008)

The place to be seen if you’re green
A two-day festival to showcase energy alternatives and sustainability issues is planned for this summer in Port Gamble, with the goal of presenting a "green" philosophy to the general public.

"We're not going to just preach to the choir with this event," said North Kitsap Commissioner Steve Bauer. "We want to bring in the people who don't have a lot of information about this and make it fun enough when they get there that it becomes a learning experience."

Read Complete Article           (Port Orchard Independent Charlie Bermant 03/29/2008)

Future Festival' Planned in Port Gamble
"Sustainable living" will be the theme of the first Great Peninsula Future Festival, to be held in Port Gamble Aug. 2-3.

The event will focus on ideas such as energy conservation, environmental preservation, transportation, green building and recycling, according to organizers. It will include entertainment, handmade crafts, locally produced food and environmental education.

The idea for the festival was conceived by Kitsap County Commissioner Steve Bauer, who enlisted his sister, Sandra Bauer, to lead the organization. She was one of the original organizers of the annual Oregon Country Fair, a three-day festival near Eugene.

Read Complete Article           (Kitsap Sun Staff 03/19/2008)

Great Peninsula Future Festival
We’re convinced that learning how to live a greener lifestyle can be fun. To prove it, our nonprofit “Sustainable Kitsap” coalition is hosting an outdoor sustainability festival in historic Port Gamble, on August 2-3. We’ll combine green innovation and learning with nonstop family entertainment, live music, local foods and hand-made crafts. We’ll have lots of fun stuff for the kids, including a trash art contest. We’ll mix family fun with engaging displays featuring the greenest concepts, technologies, products and services available. We want families to come for the fun and leavewith a new vision for a sustainable future.

 (One Sky. One Washington.)