The Astoria-Warrenton Crab and Seafood Festival has moved almost as much as a U-Haul truck and has finally found a home at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds

In the course of its 21-year history, the Astoria-Warrenton Crab and Seafood Festival has moved among half-a-dozen locations around the community.

But this year – the festival’s second at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds – organizers say they’ve found a home for the annual event that’s just right. Assuming all goes smoothly with traffic and parking.

In the festival’s early days, the focus was on the seafood industry and the locations reflected that.

Dan Andriesian, a retired dentist and fisherman who now owns the North Coast Restaurant Equipment Company in Warrenton, remembers the group of concerned business people that launched the festival. When it started out, organizers called it The Great Astoria Crab Feed and Seafood Festival.

“Fishing was going downhill and you could see the writing on the wall,” said Andriesian, who was chairman of the Committee to Promote Astoria, as the group of representatives from the hotel, restaurant and fishing industries called themselves. “My original intention was the seafood industry and Oregon wines.”

Almost all of the vendors at the first crab feed – March 27, 1982 – were associated with seafood, with the exception of one hot-dog vendor, Andriesian said.

The next year, trawl fishers brought in examples of the different species they caught and put the whole fish on ice next to a display showing how the fish appeared at the market.

“The kids were just flocking around that all the time,” he said.

For the first three years, the crab feed was held in March, “because that was really the deadest time of the year,” Andriesian said, as he flipped through an extensive scrap book of yellowed newspaper clippings, pictures, festival programs from the early days and letters from people who visited the event.

According to Andriesian’s attendance records, the first three years were a brilliant success, which he attributes to the community’s efforts to make it happen. In 1982, 5,000 people came to the Saturday afternoon event. In 1983, around 20,000 people showed up, as the crab feed was expanded to its current format: Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. In 1984 more than 23,000 attended.

The various locations around the Port of Astoria where the feed was held those first three years had become inadequate. As the event grew in size, planners faced “a real problem with where to have it,” Andriesian said. That’s about the time he stepped down from his leadership role.

The event made its first major move in 1986, when it was held at Tongue Point.

“I’ve heard many comments that Tongue Point was the best location – except for traffic,” said Colleen Henderson, who heads up festival planning for the Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce.

After three years of trying to make it work there, the festival tried Rilea Armed Forces Training Center in 1989. Henderson said bad weather and a bad configuration of vendor booths combined to make Camp Rilea about the worst site the event has ever had. Think drab buildings and mud puddles.

Warrenton City Park played host in 1990 and ’91 when Gil Gramson, who was city manager and president of the chamber of commerce, was “really a big part of crab fest,” Henderson said.

In 1992, the festival began a 10-year run at the Hammond Boat Basin. It was a popular site, but not without its share of problems. The chamber of commerce board was split when it voted to move to the fairgrounds.

At Hammond, “It was literally like setting up a little city every year,” Henderson said.

The chamber had to rent expensive tents from out-of-town companies, and still the weather came in. Rain dripped on vendors and flooded booths. Sandbags and sump-pumps were kept at the ready to clear out the water. In 2001, Henderson said, heavy winds caused the shutdown of a tent on Sunday.

Last year, the festival was moved away from the water to the Clatsop County Fairgrounds, 92937 Walluski Loop.

It was warmer and drier, it took less effort and expense to set up and “the fair board pitched in like they were our volunteers,” Henderson said. All went well – except for parking and traffic.

Insufficient parking at the fairgrounds on Saturday caused a backup on Highway 202, trapping shuttle busses and festival goers in an intractable gridlock.

To avoid the parking problems this year, organizers are directing traffic to the Port’s Pier 3, which will be cleared and ready to handle thousands of cars. Parking there will be free. To discourage people from driving to the fairgrounds on Saturday, parking there is $10. A free shuttle service will ferry visitors from the Port and elsewhere in the area to the fairgrounds.

Henderson said people were “very happy” with the fairgrounds site.

“The only real disadvantage is parking and hopefully we’ll take care of that this year with the frequent shuttle service from the Port.”

Peering into the pastCrab & Seafood Festival, year, location, admission, etc.

1982, Peter Pan Seafood Building, near Red Lion Hotel, $.50, 30 booths, 800 crab ordered (ran out at 5 p.m.)

1983 Pier 3, $1.00

1984 Pier 2, $1.50

1985 Port Docks, $1.50

1986 Tongue Point

1987 Hangar 3, Tongue Point

1988 Tongue Point

1989 Camp Rilea

1990 Warrenton City Park, 90 booths

1991 Warrenton City Park

1992-2001 Hammond Boat Basin

2002 Clatsop County Fairgrounds, $5

2003 Clatsop County Fairgrounds, $5, $7 on Saturday, 188 booths, 1,600 crabs ordered

SOURCE: Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce

Crab races offer competitive funDungeness crab will be off to the races at the Astoria-Warrenton Crab and Seafood Festival this weekend.

Crab racing is a new addition to the line up of activities this year, inspired by races at festivals held in other Oregon Coast communities.

Roger Rocka, executive director of the Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce, which puts on the annual festival, visited the Northwest Championship Crab Races in Garibaldi earlier this year.

The competitors “get as serious about it as you can get if you’re drinking beer at 10 in the morning,” Rocka said.

Dungeness crab are placed in wooden chutes and urged – with shouting and pounding on the track – to scramble down to the finish line.

Students from Tongue Point’s carpentry vocation built the race track and will be on hand Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. to run the races.

Audience members can pick the crab they think will win and prizes will be awarded to those who chose correctly.

After their races, the crabs – both winners and losers – will be returned to the pot.