For more than fifty years, Fish Days meant one Saturday in July. You picked your parade spot, you ate your fish fry, you watched fireworks from the same bluff you always watch them from, and by Sunday morning downtown was quiet again. That is no longer the festival on the calendar. Fish Days will take over the Port Washington lakefront Thursday through Saturday, July 17 to 19, in an expanded version of what had been a one-day event for more than 50 years, and 2026 marks the third year of the three-day format, running July 16 through 18.
The practical consequence is this: if you still treat Fish Days as a Saturday event, you are now attending roughly a third of it. The programming has spread across four lakefront parks on rotating schedules, and each night has its own center of gravity. Here is how to read the map.
The Three-Day Shape
The 2026 festival organizes itself around three named nights, each with a different anchor park and a different crowd. FISHGIVING falls Thursday, July 16, 4pm-10pm at the Veterans and Senior Center with free fish; FISHMAS EVE is Friday, July 17, 4pm-10pm as Alumni Night; and FISHDAY runs Saturday, July 18, 11am-10pm with the parade at 11am, Upper Lake Park programming from noon to 6pm, Veterans Park through the afternoon and evening, and Rotary Park from 6pm to 9:30pm before fireworks at 9:30pm.
Read that carefully. Thursday is a single-park night. Friday adds a second stage. Saturday runs four venues in parallel. If you want the quiet version of the festival, Thursday is the one you have been missing.
Thursday, July 16 — Fishgiving Belongs to Veterans Park
Thursday is the night the festival hands the lakefront back to its longest-tenured residents. Fish Days kicks off on Thursday, locally known as Fish-giving, with an event tailored to veterans and senior citizens, and to allow them to park closer to Veterans Park where all the events that day are being held, Lake Street will be open — the only day of Fish Days when that will occur. Veterans and members of the Port Washington Senior Center will receive a free fish fry.
Two operational details matter for anyone who lives within walking distance:
- Lake Street stays open Thursday only. If you usually drive down Lake to get to the marina, Friday and Saturday it will not work.
- The music is booked earlier and softer than the weekend nights. Garry Wesley & the Memphis Rockers, an Elvis tribute band, play 4pm-7pm, followed by Advanced Band from 7pm-10pm.
If you have out-of-town family arriving Wednesday, Thursday is the night to bring them. The scale is legible, the parking is possible, and you are not competing with the Saturday tourist wave.
Friday, July 17 — Fishmas Eve and the Alumni Overlap
Friday is the night the festival becomes a class reunion. Friday is Fishmas Eve, when alumni from area schools gather for class reunions. That is not a marketing frame. If you grew up here and moved back, expect to run into two decades of classmates in a single evening at Veterans Park.
The Friday lineup runs 4pm-10pm with fish and chips and beverages, opening with 15 Minutes Of Fame, a local young musicians showcase, from 4pm-6pm, followed by Our House from 6pm-10pm. The under-eighteen showcase is the piece most locals underestimate. It is also the one that gives the night its texture, and it is why Friday is worth walking into even if you skip Saturday.
Fishmas Eve is also the night before the run, which means packet pickup traffic is layered on top of everything else. Pre-registered packet pickup runs Friday, July 17, 1:00 PM to 6:00 PM at the Port Washington State Bank Community Room, 218 E Washington Street.
Saturday, July 18 — Four Parks Running at Once
This is where the festival gets structurally unrecognizable from the version you remember. Saturday is not one event. It is four programs running in parallel across four venues, and being in the wrong park at the wrong hour means missing the thing you came for.
| Time | Upper Lake Park | Veterans Park | Rotary Park |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12–2 pm | Car Show, Makers Market, Carnival Games | Nate Herlache | — |
| 2:30–5:30 pm | (programming continues to 6 pm) | The First Wave | — |
| 3–6 pm | Shuga Blu | — | — |
| 5:30–6 pm | — | Gus Garay | — |
| 6–9:30 pm | — | Smart Mouth | Kids Boogie Down |
| 9:30 pm | — | — | Fireworks |
That schedule is drawn from the official Saturday lineup: Upper Lake Park programming from noon to 6pm with the car show, makers market and carnival games; Shuga Blu at Upper Lake 3pm-6pm; Veterans Park with Nate Herlache 12n-2pm, The First Wave 2:30pm-5:30pm, Gus Garay 5:30pm-6pm, Smart Mouth 6pm-9:30pm; Rotary Park hosting Kids Boogie Down 6pm-9:30pm; and fireworks at 9:30pm.
The parade opens the day. The traditional Fish Days parade starts at 11 a.m. at the intersection of Wisconsin and Dodge streets, heads down St. Mary's Hill and through downtown to just past the corner of Wisconsin and Milwaukee streets. If you live north of the parade line, plan your morning around it. If you live south, the walk to Upper Lake Park is your best move as soon as the last float passes.
Fireworks are shot from Coal Dock Park, which changes the sightlines from what many longtime residents remember. Fish Days will conclude with a spectacular fireworks show shot from Coal Dock Park at dusk. If your bluff view was set up for the old launch point, walk it once in daylight on Friday so you know where to stand Saturday night.
The 5K's New Flat Option
The Portal Fish Day Run/Walk/Roll has changed shape for 2026, and it matters for anyone who has skipped it in past years because of the hills. New this year is Portal's Captain's Course for those who choose to not brave the Port Washington hills. This course is in Coal Dock Park and will be accessible to all abilities. People using walkers, wheelchairs or those pushing strollers are welcome.
The traditional 5K route is worth understanding if you live along it, because it closes streets you use. The 5K route starts and finishes in Coal Dock Park, travels the harbor area leading to Upper Lake Park, continues to the Ozaukee County Interurban Trail, and comes back along the harbor area before re-entering Coal Dock Park. If you take the Interurban Trail on your Saturday-morning runs, reroute or start early. The race is on Saturday July 18, 2026.
Fees escalate as the race approaches. Captains Course registration is $20 through May 17, $25 from May 18 to July 11, $30 July 12-18, and $50 on race day (6:30 am to 7:45 am, online cashless only). The economics reward the neighbors who register early.
Who Actually Runs This Thing
Locals who have never volunteered often assume Fish Days is a city event. It is not. Organizers now think of the festival as Port's Largest Fundraiser, because the civic groups that staff it — the Greater Port Washington Kiwanis Club, St. John XXIII Men's Club, Port Lions Club, Port Rotary Club, Be3, The Port Yacht Club, Port Washington Baseball and Softball and Masons — make a significant amount of money throughout the event that they pump back into the city through community projects and scholarships.
That is worth knowing before you complain about a ticket price or a fish fry line. The dollar you spend on a plate of perch on Saturday is the dollar that funds a scholarship or a park bench in September.
Where to Land Before or After
The festival footprint runs from Coal Dock Park north to Upper Lake Park, which puts most of downtown's dining within a five-minute walk of a stage. A few anchors worth planning around:
- The Beacon Restaurant, inside The Harborview hotel, sits on the water with sightlines that make it a defensible dinner reservation on Saturday. The Beacon presents food and spirits with a view of the Art Deco Lighthouse, marina and Lake Michigan.
- Twisted Willow on Franklin Street holds up as the sit-down option when you want the festival off your plate for an hour.
- Inventors Brewpub at 435 N Lake St gives you a Lake Michigan view and a shorter wait than the tented bars inside the festival.
- Daily Baking Company on Franklin is your Friday-morning stop before packet pickup.
- Frankie's, the 1969 Airstream on Franklin Street, is the between-events move with kids. Frankie is a 1969 Airstream Safari serving 11 flavors of locally-crafted Cedar Crest Ice Cream and hot, fresh mini donuts, open Memorial Day to Labor Day 11:30am-9:30pm.
The old Fish Days rewarded showing up. The new Fish Days rewards planning. That is the shift, and it is why the residents who treat this as a three-day festival get roughly three times the festival that residents who still treat it as a Saturday do.
When You're Ready to Talk About Homes Near the Lakefront
If a weekend like this is why you moved to Port Washington, or why you are thinking about moving closer to the lake, that is a conversation the team at Kurtin Realty has often. We know which blocks hear the Coal Dock Park fireworks like a private show, which streets close for the parade, and which corners of the harbor a family actually walks to on a Thursday night. Request Your Free Home Valuation when you are ready to talk about what your current place is worth, or reach out and we will meet you at Rotary Park during Kids Boogie Down.
