Music, dancing, and the mouth-watering smell of alder-smoked salmon filled downtown Ballard last weekend during the annual Ballard Music & Seafoodfest.
The free festival featured music, vendors, a beer and cocktail garden, kids activities, a salmon barbecue, and time-honored traditions that showcased Ballard’s Scandinavian roots.
The nonprofit neighborhood organization Ballard Alliance puts on the Music & Seafoodfest each year with financial support from business sponsorships and help from tons of volunteers. It’s one of their largest annual fundraisers.
Ballard Alliance Senior Marketing Director Anndrea Dohring first attended the festival in 2016 and has been a fan of it ever since. She came to work for the Ballard Alliance soon after experiencing the festival as an attendee, and she’s seen it grow to include more live music and higher-profile bands. The increasing emphasis on music led to a name change that debuted this year: The Ballard Seafoodfest became the Ballard Music & Seafoodfest.
“In Ballard, we’re really into public art, supporting the arts, and so having that music component was important,” Dohring said. She admitted the new name was a bit of a mouthful, laughing and adding, “We came up with the slogan, ‘Fish, fun, and more since 1974,’ but now we have to change it to ‘Fish, music, fun, and more since 1974.’”
When the festival first began 52 years ago, it was a two-hour barbecue fundraiser for the Ballard Chamber of Commerce, which would later become the Ballard Alliance. The festival has been growing every year since and now encompasses the whole weekend. Foundational elements like the salmon barbecue fundraiser remain while live music has grown.
On Friday, a large crowd danced, cheered, and sang along to Nite Wave, a popular 80s new wave cover band from Seattle. Dohring expected a record-breaking crowd on Saturday night with indie rock headliner Built To Spill. Sunday brought performances from local musicians all day long as well as the highly anticipated Ozzie’s International Lutefisk Eating Contest.
As usual, city councilmember Dan Strauss volunteered to help judge the competition. Tim Hunter, who has hosted the contest for over 10 years, introduced the 12 contestants and kept the audience engaged with quips about the dried and cured cod and its generally agreed-upon distastefulness.
Contestants were required to eat half a pound of lutefisk as fast as possible each round, culminating in a final face-off between two “brave souls,” as Dohring called them. After one round, Hunter asked a contestant, “How did it taste?” They replied simply, “It was so bad.”
Ballard resident Scott Bryson was this year’s champion. He’s come in second and third in his past four years of competing so he was happy to finally take home the gold.
“I don’t mind the taste of lutefisk,” Bryson said. “It doesn’t taste like much of anything at all to me.”
“All the money that we raise at Seafoodfest is reinvested back into the community through projects,” Dohring said. The Ballard Alliance funds flower planters, public art, resources for small businesses, and many more programs. They also host other neighborhood-wide events like Ballard’s Regnbue Pride Festival and the Ballard HolidayFest & Market.
Dohring hoped the Music & Seafoodfest would provide festivalgoers with a feeling of community and locals with a sense of pride in their neighborhood. And lots of good seafood, of course.
Featured photo: 80s new wave cover band Nite Wave performs on the main stage at the Ballard Music & Seafoodfest on July 10, 2026.