By Donna Beth Weilenman Martinez News-Gazette The booms you may hear Saturday and Sunday will be cannonfire. But there’s no need to worry. It’s just pirates and their ship to shore battles at the Northern California Pirate Festival in Vallejo’s Waterfront Park. The Northern California Pirate Festival is one of the few entertaining events that […]
Bright-sailed privateer to battle land-based cannoneers at Pirate Festival
Pirates descending on Vallejo for Father’s Day weekend
By Donna Beth Weilenman Martinez News-Gazette Special to the Herald Ahoy, ye salty sea dogs! Keep a weather eye on the horizon – especially toward the Carquinez Strait. Pirates are coming to invade the Vallejo Waterfront Park Father’s Day weekend, June 16 and 17. And those sea rogues and privateers have been doing just that […]
King of the sea stars in Sirens Lagoon at Pirate Festival
By Donna Beth Weilenman Martinez News Gazette Special to the Herald Usually Justin Vorhauer strolls the Northern California Pirate Festival as a character familiar to those who like pirate history – or rum. He has portrayed Henry Morgan for the past three years, working alongside such other famed historical pirates as Grace O’Malley, Edward “Blackbeard” […]
Turn Dad into a pirate for Father’s Day Weekend
By Donna Beth Weilenman Martinez News Gazette Special to the Herald The largest pirate festival in the United States gives families a fun option for Fathers Day weekend – turn Dad into a buccaneer. Whether the family favors Captain Jack Sparrow of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie franchise, Peter Pan’s nemesis Captain Hook, the […]
Youngsters face challenges at Vallejo Pirate Festival
By Donna Beth Weilenman Martinez News Gazette Special to the Herald Worried that your children are spending too much time on electronic devices? Are they fresh out of class and already bored? Greg Medley and Maria Eivers-Medley have a solution. Enroll them in pirate school. The couple operates the Anne Bonny and Jack Rackham School […]
Pirate Festival half price ticket period ends Thursday
By Donna Beth Weilenman Martinez New Gazette The Northern California Pirate Festival is returning to the Vallejo Waterfront Park Fathers’ Day weekend, and organizers are offering tickets at half price through Thursday. These are the early bird ticket sales, offered for admission to the family-oriented entertainment both Saturday, June 17, and Sunday, June 18, as […]
Father’s Day at pirate festival becoming tradition
For Mother’s Day, families often take Mom out to lunch, Anna Benincasa noted. But what do families do for Dad on Father’s Day? “Interestingly, we’re finding we’re becoming the destination,” she said. And by “we,” she means the Northern California Pirate Festival, which is Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and continues Sunday, Father’s […]
History plays key role in this weekend’s pirate festival
From the dread Blackbeard, Edward Teach, who frightened his enemies by embedding fire in his thick locks; to William Kidd, the former pirate hunter who turned rogue; to Woodes Rogers, who gave up piracy to became a royal governor who tracked down pirates — all are on their way to Vallejo. The eighth Northern California […]
See — or be — a historic pirate
Festival organizers want to bring out your inner ‘Arrr’ The Northern California Pirate Festival is looking for a few good — or bad — buccaneers, privateers and seafaring scoundrels, the kind whose tales are told in history books. This year’s festival theme is “2014: Year of the Pirate,” highlighting famous, infamous and even some obscure […]