The Party STARTS at Boundary Bay Brewery!

join us in our Beer Garden!

It’s hard to believe, but it’s already time again for the annual Ski to Sea race here in Bellingham.

The Ski to Sea Festival consists of a 100 mile relay race of seven different sports, a parade, and other special events provide a wide variety of entertainment and adventure for all who participate.

A phrase you’ll hear often about Ski to Sea weekend is “It All Ends in Fairhaven” which is where the finish line to the race is as well as the street fair on Sunday.  But, while it may all END in Fairhaven, we say that party STARTS at Boundary Bay Brewery!

We’ve got a long weekend packed full of events to keep you entertained and best of all, this year there will be a shuttle leaving from our front door and heading to Fairhaven and Zuanich Park on Ski to Sea day (Sunday, May 29th). And just $2 will get you unlimited rides
all day long!

Thursday Happy Hour BBQ

Thursday, May 26th: 

Happy Hour BBQ in the beer garden, 4-6pm. All ages welcome. Burgers, Dogs, Salmon & Veggie Burgers, only $5 each. Onion rings and fries available too. BBQ continues till 8pm. Free live music starts at 6pm with your host, Robert Sarazin Blake.

Friday, May 27th:

Fish Fry Fryday.  Fish and Chips in the garden, Boundary style. Beer battered Rockfish and crispy golden fries. Onion rings available too. Free live music featuring local musicians starts at 6pm. All ages till 9pm.

Later that night: DJ Idlhnds Presents: Hip Hop to Help. Live performances by My Dad Bruce, The Bad Tenants, Bloodshot. Plus DJ sets by DJ Einstein & DJ Idlhnds. 9pm, 21+, $5 in the beer garden. Beer! Hip-Hop! Raffle! Proceeds to benefit Amy’s Place. www.amysplaceforyouth.org 

Amy’s Place Drop-in Center began in December 2006 to address the gap in services being provided to the homeless, runaway and street youth population in Whatcom County. Amy’s Place quickly grew from serving only a few youth a night to now providing services for up to 48 youth Friday and Saturday evenings. Many of the youth served at Amy’s Place are the hardest to serve and really don’t fit into Whatcom County’s current shelter and support system network because of chemical dependency issues and mental illness. At Amy’s Place, the goal is to build relationships with these hard-to-reach youth so that they can choose for themselves to live in recovery, enter treatment and leave the streets.

delicious craft beer!

Sat, May 28th:

Ski to Sea Block Party/Luau!  4-8pm. Wear your best Hawaiian Luau outfit and get ready to hula for a chance to win two tickets to Honolulu, HI, courtesy of Alaska Airlines! There’ll be live music, dancing, food, and fun! First 800 racers with their bibs to show up get an official Ski to Sea drinking glass!

Later than Night: Music by the The DT’s, Tom Price Desert Classic (Garage / Post punk / Rock band from Seattle), & Don’t.  9:30pm, 21+, Cover $6 
”Hard soul is a description of the DT’s sound: a head-on collision of dirty R&B and raw-soul influenced hard rock” (what’s up magazine) The Dts originated as a threesome at the tail-end of 2001. Guitarist Dave Crider (Mono Men, Watts, and head honcho of Estrus Records) and Diana Young-Blanchard (chanteuse, writer, and song stylist, Madame X) are long-time friends who conceived the idea of forming a band with heavy influences of 70’s-style-hard-rock, injected with a flavorful dose of soul sensibility, likened to that of greats like Otis, Al, and Ike & Tina to name a few. Shortly after the dynamic duo design, they latched onto powerhouse drummer Phil Carter and spent their first year blowing people’s minds with a full-on, Hard Soul sound rarely matched by any group twice their number. DON’T pulls their sound from punk, blues and surf, creating a dark and soulful blend of rock. DON’T features Dave Minick, Sam Henry, Dan Lowinger, and Jenny Don’t.  Featuring two ex-Bellingham musician’s Dan Lowinger and Jenny Don’t, Portland’s DON’T mix a dark and brooding sound with surf rock for a combination that is winning over the Portland music scene and beyond. DON’T initially came together seven months ago

Sun, May 29th:

Flowmotion and special guest Cody Beebe and the Crooks.  9pm, 21+, $10 cover Flowmotion, one of Seattle’s most distinctly diverse rock bands. This is an act that fails to fall into an easily packaged genre, succeeds in defying stereotypes, and throws one hell of a party no matter what city, town or festival the five-piece band happens to land in.  one Oregon paper declared their band “a high-energy, multi-genre rock and roll explosion.”

And don’t forget to try some of our special Ski to Sea ESB – a rare brew only available for about a month that was brewed to commemorate the Ski to Sea 100 years of racing.

Boundary Bay Brewery Helps Raise $2,500

In early March, Boundary Bay Brewery turned one of our Friday night late shows into a benefit for Amy’s Place.  As part of that event, the organization brought a kayak to be raffled off with all proceeds going to support Amy’s Place.  Finally…after months of suspense, a winner has been chosen.

And the winner is Dan Shelton!

We are pleased to report that the kayak raffle raised over $2500 for the kids at Amy’s Place.  Amy’s Place is a non-profit organization that started a youth drop in center in December 2006. Starting with six youth, their growth has been exponential. They have had the opportunity of serving 589 unduplicated youth during the past 20 months, and youth have returned to the center over 3,072 times!!  The center is struggling to meet not only the basic needs of these children but also address the underlying problems they face.  By creating a non-threatening youth friendly environment such as Amy’s Place, where basic needs are met, Amy’s Place attendees naturally become more likely to want to make positive changes in their lives. With love, support, and mentoring they can become more successful as they connect to community resources such as stable housing, employment, education, and healthcare opportunities.

We here at Boundary Bay Brewery are proud to be help Amy’s Place and the Bellingham community at large.  Thank you to all who participated in the benefit show last March and in the kayak raffle.  Your contributions are much appreciated by Boundary Bay, Amy’s place and the youth of Bellingham.  If you would like to make further donations to Amy’s Place, please visit the donation page on their website.

Boundary Bay Brewery Turns Late Show Into Charity Benefit

Boundary Bay Brewery has made a new commitment to turn our Friday Night Late Shows into fundraising opportunities for local charities.  In 2007, our brewery began hosting weekly Late Shows that feature the best of local and regional music.  Now, the shows will be held every other week and will benefit non-profits as well as the local music scene.  Boundary has a long history of supporting community non-profits like the annual Cribbage Tournament organized to benefit the Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center and the Inauguration Party held this year to benefit the Bellingham Food Bank.  Janet Lightner, our general manager here at Boundary Bay Brewery, sees this as just another way to give back to the community.

March 6th will herald the first of these fundraising opportunities.  Our Late Show, featuring Jack Conte, will benefit Amy’s Place, a local non-profit organization that serves as a drop-in center for the homeless and struggling youth of Bellingham.  Amy’s Place provides hot meals, hygiene kits, shower passes, clean clothing, food, and referrals to other community resources. This is the only center of its kind in Whatcom County and an average of 30 youth attend each of the three days a week Amy’s Place is open.  The success of this program has been overwhelming and the organization is currently struggling to find funding to keep their doors open and continue providing a vital service to these underserved youth.  “We are applying for funding everywhere. Federal grants will be announced in the spring and money from the City of Bellingham will probably come in around April.  It’s just getting through March and the last part of February that is a really big challenge. Boundary Bay’s timing is perfect!” says Heidi Unick, program director of Amy’s Place (a program component of Old Town Christian Ministries).

Every other Friday night, a different local non-profit will be at the receiving end of the money raised by the $4 cover price for the Boundary Bay Late Show. Non-profits who need fundraising should contact Janet Lightner by filling out the comment card on the contact page of our website.