This weekend marks the fourth annual Tacoma Porchfest, the free walkable music festival where about 280 local bands take over 110 porches and businesses in Central and North Tacoma.
Porchfest will be happening July 12-13, the same weekend as Tacoma Pride this year — something organizer Irina Rasputnis says was a result of her own calendar restraints — so plan to see some joint programming, with a Porchfest stage in Wright Park and bike parade taking attendees from one festival to the other on Saturday, she said.
Every year Steve LaBerge has driven a fire-breathing dragon of his own creation in the Tacoma Porchfest parade. Standing 7 feet tall, the dragon’s fiberglass exterior and internal grid of LED lights glow blue, yellow and red. Its metal jaws gnash and spit fire as LaBerge sits inside, pulling levers to twist its neck and head.
LaBerge, who will be 67 this fall, is an insurance agent by day and artist who specializes in larger-than-life whimsical creations. A big, glowing, fiberglass heart he made sits in his North End front lawn on North 30th Street, and in his backyard rests a large blinking spaceship topped with finger-like tentacles…