Pacific to welcome top chainsaw carvers for 3-day festival

Pacific will come to life with the sights and sounds of extreme art – those of chainsaw-chiseling artists.

Pacific City Park will be the stage for the inaugural White River Chainsaw Carving Championships, an all power tool event Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The event will feature 12 of the top chainsaw artists in the Northwest, including three-time Echo Cup champion Bob King of Edgewood. He holds more titles than any other carver in the country and recently won the Danish International Challenge against 28 of the top carvers in the world.

The event will run each day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the park, located at 600 3rd Ave. SE. Carvers will compete for thousands of dollars in cash and merchandise.

Among the carvers are Todd Whited and Jake Lucas – both from Bonney Lake – and Enumclaw's Juaquin Quezada.

A quick carve event is among the 20-plus hours devoted to carving time over the weekend. In this format, competitors will have 75 minutes to create a masterpiece that will go up for auction that evening.

Pieces will be auctioned on Saturday (5-6 p.m.) and Sunday afternoon (3:30) with proceeds split between competitors and event costs. There is no auction scheduled for Friday.

Items from Friday's auction will be carried over to Sunday.

Admission is $1 each day.

The carving competitions are part of Pacific Days – a weekend filled with parades, activities and vendors – presented by Pacific Partnerships.

Chainsaw carving has grown as a sport over the past decade – from a roadside attraction into events that attract thousands of fans and generate hundreds of thousands of dollars to local economies.

Although people often regard chainsaw art as the cute little bear cub holding a sign, but they are more likely to see intricate pieces surrounding the event's theme – Pacific's 100 years of history – as well as a variety of animals, including eagles, cougar and elk. The sport is not just for bears anymore.

This event is a joint partnership among the City of Pacific, the Pacific/Algona community center, a registered non-profit organization, and WRCCC.

For more information, visit www.whiterivercarving.com or pacificpartnerships.org/pacific_days.html.