Monday, May 18, 2026
This year marks the 91st Rhododendron Festival of Jefferson County. The COVID-19 pandemic marked only the second global history-making event to interrupt the festival; it was previously suspended from 1942 through 1945 due to World War II.
Although COVID-19 yielded a similar suspension in 2020, the Rhody Fest managed to “sneak into” 2021 by delaying its festivities until August, whereas the traditional week when the festival is celebrated locally is the third week in May.
In 2022, the only parade the Rhody Fest was able to attend was its own, due to travel restrictions and a lack of revenue from the carnival.
The Rhododendron Festival grew out of a short film, shot by Hearst Metrotone News for theaters across the United States, after local businessman Clive Buttermere persuaded the Hearst organization to film wild rhododendrons in bloom in Jefferson County in 1935.
Buttermere and his fellow local merchants then organized a competition, so that a court of young women could be filmed with the rhododendrons by Hearst, and the community could vote for their favorite candidates by spending money at various participating businesses, which resulted in Myrtle Olsen being crowned the first Rhododendron Queen.
A glimpse into Rhody’s past generations shows the humor, pageantry and small-town traditions that have shaped the Rhododendron Festival for more than 90 years in Port Townsend. Baton-twirling champion Renae Ellis wipes away tears after winning her division during a Rhody Festival competition in 1969 at Memorial Field
The American Legion, keen to perpetuate the popular pageant, made it an annual event with the first Rhododendron Festival in 1936, when it was celebrated with a single day of activities, including a parade.
As the festival’s royalty continued to be chosen through community members patronizing participating businesses, the Chamber of Commerce took over leadership of the festival in the early 1950s, and the number of events associated with the festival steadily multiplied until the festival itself expanded into a full week of festivities.
The festival’s schedule of activities grew to include golf and baseball tournaments, air and car shows, a “cow chip” throwing contest, a succession of boat, bed and trike races, a beardgrowing contest, a kids’ parade and a “queen’s ball,” as the candidate who sold the most buttons was crowned queen.
2025 Rhody Queen Taylor Frank, a Chimacum High School senior, waves to the crowd during the Grand Parade on May 17, 2025
The 1980s saw the Rhododendron Festival go nonprofit, so that volunteers would chair the festival and serve as its board members, while royalty would receive scholarships from the association to pursue their education, and button sales and other contributions from the community would help fund the festival.
The royalty and float crew’s travels to between 10 and 15 parades per year are also intended to promote Port Townsend and Jefferson County.
A participant races down Lawrence Street during the festival’s 1985 bed races, where the SeaGalley entry famously lost a wheel early in the competition
Mike and Troy Thacker dressed for the 1969 Pet Parade wrapped in newspaper beside a sign reading “For Sale: 2 Boys, 1 Dog;”
Masked cyclists wave to spectators during the modified COVID-era Rhody celebration in 2020.
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