Arts & Entertainment

Our weekly roundup of what’s happening around Gig Harbor.

The Art in the Park show helps inaugurate PenMet Parks’ new headquarters building — and its partnership with Peninsula Art League.

The nonprofit founded by Gig Harbor native Scott Smalling hosts two showings of a new documentary next week as a fundraiser.

Local organizations are celebrating Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month and gearing up for Halloween with mask making events, costume parties and painting experiences. Veteran tours The Gig Harbor BoatShop hosts a fall colors tour of Colvos Passage aboard the historic purse seiner Veteran on Sunday, Oct. 13. The tours run from 10 a.m. to 1:30

Remembering the halcyon days when one could get lutefisk whenever one wanted in Gig Harbor.

How much would you pay to own one-of-a-kind pieces of fishing, environmental, scientific and literary history? Could you be an “angel?” Those are questions inspired by a Wauna man’s quest. Michael Hemp, a vibrant, engaging and consistently curious 81-year-old whose business card lists him as “Historian, Heritage Marketing & Communications Consultant, Researcher, Archivist, Lecturer, Novelist,”

2024 Gig Harbor Film Festival awards went to “First We Bombed New Mexico,” “7000 Miles,” “Dawgfather” director Kent Loomer and others.

Correction: Fox Island Octoberfest is Friday, Oct. 4. An earlier version misstated the day of the event. The annual Scarecrow Festival kicks off the Halloween season from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5, at Sehmel Homestead Park. PenMet’s Scarecrow Festival includes a pumpkin launch, peeweee rodeo, Markers Market, and an assortment of vendors.

I admit it. I’m easily distracted. Staying focused is not my strong suit. Take last year, when I set out on a daytrip to Port Townsend to check out the place that’s reported to be one of the most haunted towns in the Pacific Northwest, if not the entire United States. Instead, I ended up