PORT ANGELES – An otherwise successful Dungeness Crab and Seafood Festival in Port Angeles was marred by a wind event.

Organizers say all but 12 of the outdoor vendor tents set up near City Pier were destroyed when a windstorm swept through the area early Sunday morning.  Winds gusting to near 40 miles per hour were reported.

But festival organizers say the rest of the festival well exceeded their expectations. With the lack of Canadian visitors this year, locals and U.S. visitors helped filled the festival. They sold more than three thousand crab dinners and sold out of dinners on Saturday. Those sale numbers are down a couple thousand from a “normal” year when thousands of Canadians come to the festival, which is held on Canada’s national Thanksgiving long weekend.

This year, a steady throng of visitors enjoyed a spread-out festival with tent sides opened and masks required to make it COVID safe.