By David Rosen

The summer solstice kicked off at Solstice Park to ring in the first summer sunset of the year on June 21.

Alice Enevoldsen who hosted the solstice event said “ A couple different pieces came together to start this. The first piece was I am frustrated at the fact that star gazing events in Seattle always get rained out because if you want to have a star party or something its going to be cloudy and raining and so you cant do anything in the dark if you don’t have the stars so I was trying to come up with another sky gazing event that we could do something even if it was raining or was cloudy and also around the same time I finally came to visit Solstice Park and realized that this is right in my neighborhood so its quick and easy for me to get here, and that meant if it gets rained out well I could stop by anyway and see if other people were here and wanted to talk about the solstice or the equinox. I have been doing this event for quite awhile but the winter solstice were actually more popular surprisingly even though those are the most likely to get cloudy or rained out.”

Kelly Lusnia who is originally from South Florida but has lived here for a couple of years came to watch the sunset tonight said “ I have never been to Solstice Park before, I’m from the East Coast so we don’t have as beautiful sunsets on the East Coast.”

Philip Mariconda who also came to watch the sunset said, “ I grew up Christian and I was always told that anything related to paganism is wrong and you know what there is a place for where as I say where science and faith unite and this really is a sir majesty of God is what I see here and yes this is a pagan ceremony but there is a connection and that’s what I seek in ceremonies like this.”

To see a larger version of the main photo click on the attachment.