Everett Sausage Fest again on hiatus. Could it be brat back?
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, July 19, 2022
EVERETT — Reports of Everett Sausage Fest’s demise may be premature.
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church has hosted the annual fundraiser and autumnal celebration since 1976. But the Bavarian-themed festival has been on hiatus during the pandemic for two years — and counting.
A Facebook post on the event’s page July 12 hinted at its official end. The post was deleted late last week.
“All the volunteers and board members thank the Everett community by supporting our festival and our school for the last 45 years,” the post stated. “Everyone regrets losing the ability to have this fall tradition but are excited at the chance to engage our community in new ways, reaching out to those in need …”
Instead, the volunteer-run gathering may be in limbo.
“The Sausage Fest this year has always been cancelled due to COVID,” Seattle Archdiocese spokeswoman Helen McClenahan wrote in an email. “They’re hoping to bring it back in the future.”
In May, the Archdiocese announced the official merger of north Everett’s Catholic churches, Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The new church, which will be at Immaculate Conception at 2508 Hoyt Ave., is Our Lady of Hope.
At the time, Father Joseph Altenhofen said the Cedar Street property would again host the festival if COVID numbers made it safe to have large gatherings.
But other buildings at that campus were being evaluated for future uses, such as housing or a hot meal service.
Case rates have shot up as recent variants became prevalent, with the weekly case rate in Snohomish County at 256 per 100,000 people, according to state Department of Health data.
Word of the festival’s supposed end sparked intense responses and recalled family memories. People remembered riding a large slide with children, seeing TV clowns J.P. Patches and Gertrude, working a grill, playing kid games and bingo, feeling the event was “like a high school reunion” for the county, catching The Blues Brothers at the beer garden and laughing at the antics of Stan Boreson, the “King of Scandinavian Humor.”
Others lamented about Snohomish County’s changes over 50 years and not having their child be able to attend now that they’re old enough to wander the grounds with their tween and teenage friends.
Any future announcements about the event should come from the church at ladyofhopechurch.org, McClenahan said.
Ben Watanabe: 425-339-3037; bwatanabe@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @benwatanabe.
