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📆 Tacoma Area Events

🏮 Japanese Festival Downtown

🚸 STEAM Camps for Kids

🪓 Last Call for Axe Academy

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Tacoma Buddhist Temple will host its Bon Odori Festival on Saturday, August 1, bringing traditional dancing, taiko performances, food, and community festivities to Fawcett Avenue near UW Tacoma.

Bon Odori is a Japanese Buddhist tradition that honors loved ones who have passed by celebrating them through dance. Everyone is welcome to attend, whether they want to dance, watch the performances, enjoy the food, or simply take in the festival atmosphere. Visitors are encouraged to bring a blanket or small chairs for seating along the sidewalk or hillside on the west side of the street.

The festival runs from 4 to 8 p.m., with concessions, booths, and a beer garden opening at 4 p.m., an opening service at 4:30 p.m., Fuji Taiko performing at 5 p.m., Obon dancing, a Seattle Matsuri Taiko intermission performance, live Obon music by Northwest Minyo Kai, and a candle memorial observance at 8 p.m. Food options include chicken teriyaki, unagi, tofu and egg bowls, Spam musubi, Obon dogs, somen, shave ice, mochi desserts, handmade pie, and more.

Details are available here.

Families looking for August activities still have several Snapology camp options coming up at STAR Center.

Snapology uses building toys, robotics, coding, design challenges, LEGO® bricks, K’Nex, and technology to turn hands-on play into STEAM learning. To kids, it feels like building and creating. Behind the scenes, they are exploring science, technology, engineering, arts, and math in a way that helps build problem-solving and creative thinking skills.

The August camps at STAR Center run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and include options for ages 5–8 and 8–12. Upcoming themes include Animation Studio, Castles & Kingdoms, Mega Machines, Robotics, Creature Creators, Creative Makers, Movie Magic, ThinkerBots Robotics, and Discovering Dinosaurs, with camp weeks beginning August 3, August 10, and August 17. Families can find registration links through Parks Tacoma and STAR Center.

Sign up here.

Axe Academy in downtown Tacoma is preparing to close after three years in business.

The family-friendly axe-throwing venue, located at 705 Court C in Opera Alley, says its final day will be Friday, July 31. Owners Josh and Victoria Buck said the business was created as a place where people could laugh, connect, and make memories, and thanked Tacoma for three years of birthdays, first dates, family outings, leagues, business events, and community support.

Until the final day, visitors can still book time for one last round of axe throwing. Axe Academy’s current hours are Wednesday and Thursday from 5 to 9 p.m., Friday from 5 to 10 p.m., and Saturday from 1 to 10 p.m.

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