The first annual THING event takes over Fort Worden State Park on August 24 -25, presenting a variety of music, theater and literary events. For this week’s Compass, Josh LaBelle (executive director of Seattle Theatre Group) and Adam Zacks (co-producer of the event), two of the organizers talked with KPTZ News staffer Charlie Bermant about how the festival came to be and landed in Port Townsend. We’ll learn about the the festival’s specifics and how it will provide a well rounded immersive artistic experience for all ages.

KPTZ continues a 5-week broadcast of Joe McHugh’s “Rosin the Bow” podcast episodes leading up to Centrum’s Fiddle Tunes Workshop in early July. “Rosin the Bow” explores some of the many roles the violin family of instruments play in the world today through a series of public radio programs, podcasts, and a comprehensive oral history archived by the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History. Traveling throughout the United States and other parts of the world, storyteller, fiddler, and award-winning radio journalist Joe McHugh and his wife Paula McHugh seek interviews with a variety of violin makers and musicians. To learn more, visit www.rosinthebow.org. Tune in on Saturday mornings at 11am Pacific time:
- June 1: Scott Marckx, Port Townsend fiddle maker and player.
- June 9: Erynn Marshall, Canadian old-time fiddler, ethnomusicologist, teacher, and author.
- June 15: Old-tiime fiddler Carl Jones (musical partner of and married to Erynn Marshall)
- June 22: Stringband wizards Greg and Jere Canote
- June 29: Pete Sutherland, New England fiddler and musician

(First airdate: June 26, 2019) Host Mary Robson discusses with Celeste Dybeck (S’Klallam elder) and Lys Burden the new čičməhán (Chetzemoka) Trail demonstrating the S’Klallam presence in Port Townsend.

(First airdate: June 25, 2019) Sierra Club Peninsula Chapter leaders Bill Volmut and Darlene Schanfald leads Missy Nielsen of Everybody Can on a “virtual hike” with NOG(North Olympic Group). Discussing this local chapter’s impact as a powerful voice for environmental issues on the Olympic Peninsula one understands why their membership is nearly 1,400 members strong in Clallam and Jefferson counties.

Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows drew the final curtain on May 2, 2017, closing after 146 years. Immediately after, the city of Baraboo, Wisconsin (historic home of the Ringling Brothers) extended a heartfelt invitation to ALL former employees of the Greatest Show on Earth to attend its festival that summer as honored guests and Grand Marshalls of the Annual Circus Parade. KPTZ reporter Chris Bricker attended, not only to cover the event, but also as a former Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus clown. In this reprise of an earlier Compass episode, we revisit some of these employees, especially those who took care of the Circus Train — the Show’s home on the rails — as it reached its final run.
Also, a year ago, we gathered together some Swan School kids for a “Question & Answer Session,” and we thought it would be fun to revisit their answers.