Steamrollers to star at popular printmaking festival in Tacoma this weekend
It’s finally that time of year: the Tacoma Wayzgoose community printmaking festival is happening this weekend at the newly-opened Main Tacoma Library branch on May 2 and 3. The organizers say this is the biggest event ever, with artists traveling from places like Seattle and Portland.
Meet local print makers and see their wares, print your own free keepsakes and watch a steamroller drive over a huge 2-foot-by-3-foot carved linoleum print on giant paper. Attendees will also have the opportunity to screen-print T-shirts, tote bags or other fabric for free from Tacoma-based printing company Shirt The City. There will be blank T-shirts for sale.
The event runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday at 1102 Tacoma Ave. S.
Steamrollers will be making big prints every hour until about 3 p.m. both days in the street in front of the library. A list of the local vendors who are tabling at the event can be found online.
The event is put on by Write 253, a literary arts and printmaking organization that provides writing, publishing and artistic opportunities for teens and young adults in the greater Tacoma area. Write 253 is one of the new partners that has a permanent location in the new Main Library Branch on the second floor.
Michael Haeflinger, executive director of Write 253, said this year will be the biggest Tacoma Wayzgoose ever with 40 vendors.
“Tacoma is a great print maker’s town, and we have a lot of folks who live here in the city who are involved in print making, whether it’s letter press or relief printing. And I think that it’s a great opportunity for us to show off to the wider region,” he said. “It’s a good way to kind of show the city off. And also, it’s at the new library. So it’s really fun to show the new library off to the wider community and folks who haven’t seen yet.”
This story was originally published April 29, 2025 at 10:00 AM.
