BLUEPRINT NEWS | Aug 2026

BLUEPRINT NEWS Seattle

AUGUST 2026

FUN WAYS TO GET ACTIVE AROUND

SEATTLE

PADDLE, STRECH, DANCE, REPEAT

FESTIVALS, FITNESS AND FUN THIS

AUGUST

WATERFRONT’S LARGEST

KOREAN - AMERICAN EVENT

SUMMARY Blueprint News, August 2026 Issue Summary This issue is built around one idea. Seattle has a packed month of ways to get outside, and there's something in it for everyone.

Seafair anchors the issue as the city's signature summer event, running August 4 through 26 with roots going back to 1950. The piece traces its history, from King Neptune's Court and the Green Lake Aqua Theater's early lineup of legendary acts to today's Blue Angels air shows, the Torchlight Parade, hydroplane races, and the Milk Carton Derby.

Alongside Seafair, the issue rounds up a full calendar of ways to move this August. There's free yoga and Zumba at Pier 62 and Seattle Center, desk exercises for people stuck at a computer most of the day, pickleball with a nod to its Bainbridge Island origin story in 1965, and the 2026 WABA Korea Expo & Festival at Pier 62, a Korean marketplace and food festival capped with a live K-Pop finale.

Green Lake gets its own feature as Seattle's favorite loop, covering the 2.8-mile trail, kayaking and paddleboarding, and the neighborhood's cafes and breweries. A trivia section and a Milk Carton Derby throwback photo from 1987 round out the nostalgia angle. The issue closes with a client feature on a law firm office redesign.

Seattle

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Fun Ways to Get Active Around Seattle

SEATTLE'S BEST FREE WORKOUTS THIS SUMMER Looking for a reason to get outside, meet new people, and have some fun after work?

Head to Waterfront Park at Pier 62 for free, all-levels Yoga and Zumba classes, no experience or equipment needed.

Seattle Center also gets in on the action with its Workout Wednesdays series, rotating free Zumba, Pilates, and Yoga sessions right in the heart of the city; perfect for an after-work sweat session or a fun mid-week reset.

For anyone chasing a runner's high, the Green Lake loop is the city's unofficial track. It's flat, shaded, and almost always busy with joggers, walkers, and the occasional group run that anyone can join. When the sun sets, Gas Works Park turns into an evening favorite for community fitness meetups, with the skyline as a backdrop.

Grab a friend, pick a park, and get moving.

DID YOU KNOW?

PICKLEBALL WAS INVENTED IN THE SEATTLE AREA

ARTED ALL STN B E L K C O PI 5 IN 196 E ISLAND G D I R B BAIN BACKYARD AS A Y GAME. FAMIL

Pickleball was invented right here in Seattle back in the summer of 1965, when three Bainbridge Island dads (Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum) turned an old badminton court, ping-pong paddles, and a plastic ball into a game anyone could play. Today it's one of America's fastest-growing sports, and Washington leads the way with more than 2,200 courts statewide, including hundreds in the Seattle area alone.

Part of pickleball's appeal is that anyone can play: kids, retirees, competitive athletes, and total beginners all enjoy it together. It's easy to learn, affordable, great exercise, and highly social. Many parks, YMCAs, and pickleball clubs offer beginner clinics, and Seattle Parks and Recreation runs classes year-round. Popular spots include Green Lake Park, Bellevue Pickleball Club, and the new Sideout Tsunami Pickleball Center. Whether you want drop-in games, leagues, or lessons, there's a court waiting for you.

Festivals, Fitness, and Fun for Everyone this August

SEATTLE DOESN'T GET A SUMMER. IT GETS A DEADLINE.

S

omewhere in June, the sun shows up and the whole city changes its behavior overnight. Restaurant patios that sat empty

in April suddenly need a wait list. Green Lake fills with people still in their work clothes because they left the office and walked straight to the water instead of home. Nobody plans this. It just happens, every year, the moment the forecast clears.

This doesn't last.

Nine months of grey wears down the instinct to wait for a better weekend, so nobody waits anymore. If it's sunny and it's Tuesday, that's the day. Festivals here aren't scheduled around convenience, they're scheduled around the short window when people will actually show up, and mostly the sun is what gets them there.

Seafair understands the assignment better than anyone. A hydroplane race doesn't need three months of planning, just one clear Saturday and word getting around fast. The same goes for free yoga at Pier 62 or a pickleball court filling up after work. Nobody here builds a summer routine.

They grab what's available before the clouds roll back in.

Your Saturday's still open. Go find it.

EVENTS BOARD Seafair Jul 31st-Aug 2nd · Hydroplane races, air shows, and the weekend Seattle waits all summer for.

ess, n t i F , s l a Festiv un for and F this Everyonet Augus

Free Fitness Classes Aug 4-26th Pier 62, Waterfront Park Yoga: Aug 4, 11, 18, 25 I Zumba: Aug 5, 12, 19, 26 Seattle Center Zumba, Yoga & Pilates I Aug 5, 12, 19, 26

Capitol Hill Block Party Aug 7-9th · Three days of live music take over the neighborhood

2026 WABA Korea Expo & Festival Aug 14-16th · Korean marketplace, food vendors, and a live K-Pop finale at Pier 62.

THE WATERFRONT'S BIGGEST KOREAN FESTIVAL YET IS COMING TO PIER 62

This August, Pier 62 hosts an event four years in the making. The Washington State Korean American Chamber of Commerce is bringing the 2026 WABA Korea Expo & Festival to the Seattle waterfront from August 14 to 16, and organizers are calling it the biggest one yet. A business networking day precedes the public festival on August 13, pairing Korean companies with U.S. buyers before the doors open to everyone else.

The name says it all. WABA comes from the Korean phrase "wa-bwa," meaning "Come and See," and the event has run in the Seattle area every year since it launched in 2021. What started small has grown into one of the Pacific Northwest's leading KoreanAmerican gatherings, blending business networking with cultural programming, and this year's expansion puts it in a different league entirely.

Over the three public days, expect vendor showcases, K-pop performances and cultural shows, keynote speeches from government and VIP guests, and hands-on programs for visitors to try. Korean brands spanning food, beauty, tech, and lifestyle will be onsite selling directly to the public, so it's as much a place to shop and taste as it is to watch a show.

Pier 62 didn't get picked by accident. The venue draws more than 10,000 visitors a day through the summer months, and organizers built the expo around that traffic on purpose, using the waterfront's built-in crowd to give Korean brands a live test run with American shoppers.

It's a fitting overlap for the neighborhood.

The same stretch of water has spent decades hosting Seafair, the hydroplane races and air shows that have defined Seattle summers since 1950. When the sun's out, Pier 62 is where the city shows up.

A CENTURY OF SPLASH: THE STORY BEHIND SEAFAIR

In 1950, Seattle threw itself a hundredth birthday party and never really stopped. That's the year Seafair began, and the city has spent every summer since living up to it. The early years had a theatrical streak that's hard to picture now. King Neptune's Royal Court staged mock battles against "pirates" for control of the city, and the Green Lake Aqua Theater pulled in acts like Bob Hope, Led Zeppelin, and the Grateful Dead, all playing to crowds gathered around a lake most people today associate with a morning jog.

That same year, a boat named Slo-Mo Shun IV won the Gold Cup in Detroit and brought hydroplane racing home to Seattle for good. A few summers later, Boeing test pilot Tex Johnston marked the occasion in his own way, barrel-rolling a prototype 707 directly over the crowds. It's the kind of story that sounds exaggerated until you check the date and realize it happened exactly as told.

They Threw a Party in 1950. Seventy-Five Years Later, Seattle Still Hasn't Stopped.

That history is still visible every August. The Blue Angels tear across the sky, the Torchlight Parade fills downtown, hydroplanes race the same waters that made the city famous for it, and kids build cardboard boats for the Milk Carton Derby at Green Lake, a tradition that hasn't lost a bit of its charm. For the best seat on the water, the weekend-long Log Boom party puts hundreds of boats side by side along the racecourse, close enough to feel the spray.

Green Lake Park Some places simply feel like Seattle, and Green Lake is one of them. For more than a century, this park has been a gathering place where neighbors meet, families play, and runners chase new personal records. The famous 2.8-mile paved trail circles the shoreline and welcomes walkers, runners, cyclists, strollers, and the occasional unicyclist, with beautiful views nearly every step of the way.

When your lap's done, stay a while. Rent a kayak or paddleboard, cool off with a swim, or grab lunch beneath the shade trees. The surrounding neighborhood adds to the pull, with coffee shops, bakeries, and restaurants all within easy walking distance of the water.

Seattle's Favorite Loop Around the Lake

Mornings here belong to the runners and the rowers, when the water is still glassy and the trail hasn't filled up yet. By afternoon, the whole park shifts into something closer to a block party. Blankets spread out across the grass, someone's always got a speaker going, and the line for the ice cream stand across the street starts to stretch down the block.

Evenings bring their own crowd too, the after-work walkers decompressing from the day and families squeezing in one more loop before dinner.

What makes Green Lake work isn't any single feature. It's that the park changes shape depending on when you show up and what you're looking for, and somehow it holds all of it at once: the training runs, the toddler bike lessons, and the guy fishing off the dock who's been coming here for twenty years. Few parks in the city ask so little and give back so much.

Remember When... The Milk Carton Derby?

Seattle once turned recycling into a sport

W KEENEY'S CREHEIR T F F SHOWING O 1987.

CREATION IN

Teams built boats entirely from milk cartons, such as pirate ships, rockets, giant animals, you name it. Retired now, but never forgotten.

Here's the Keeney's crew showing off their creation in 1987.

Green Lake Trivia: Test Your Seattle Knowledge 1.

How long is the paved trail that circles Green Lake?

2.

What quirky Seafair tradition once took place on Green Lake, where teams raced boats built entirely from recycled milk cartons?

3.

True or false: Green Lake's trail is popular not just with walkers and runners, but occasionally with unicyclists too.

4.

What water activities can visitors enjoy at Green Lake beyond walking or running the loop?

5.

What year is featured in the special photo of the Keeney's team and their handcrafted milk carton boat?

GREEN LAKE TRIVIA ANSWER KEY

1. 2.8 miles 2. The Milk Carton Derby 3. True

4. Kayaking, canoeing, paddleboarding, and swimming 5. 1987

FROM THE STUDIO

A National Law Firm in Seattle, Designed for Influence & Presence This prestigious workplace was reimagined to support multiple work styles, creating a need for a more adaptable, efficient, and futureready environment.

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