The Southeast Alaska State Fair will be held two weeks earlier than usual this year and includes a slate of top-name entertainers. 

Legendary bluesman Elvin Bishop and 1997 fair favorite Laura Love already have signed contracts to perform at the 37th annual fair set for July 27-31. 

Fair executive director Herb VanCleve said Monday he’s optimistic that talks with 2005 Grammy winter Steve Earle also will pay off. 

“We should know more by the end of next week,” VanCleve said.  “I know he is available. He’s within our budget and we’re waiting for confirmation from the man himself. We’ve been dealing with his agent.” 

Earle took home a Grammy Award last month for best contemporary folk album for “The Revolution Starts…Now.” He’s recorded and performed for two decades and has an “untold number of hits,” as a country crossover artist, VanCleve said. 

The fair’s budget for headline entertainers this year has more than doubled to $40,000 from $16,000 in 2004, VanCleve said. 

The fair director said he’s counting on evening concerts at the fairgrounds to boost revenues. 

Bishop is scheduled to bring his brand of rollicking, electrified down-home blues to Payson’s Pavilion for the Thursday night dance. 

A charter member of the Butterfield Blues Band who’s played with Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and B.B. King at the famed Fillmore jam sessions, Bishop will bring a seven-piece band to the fair. 

“It’s a full blues band with horn section and the whole nine yards,” Van Cleve said. 

The guitarist and songwriter’s biggest hit was 1976’s “Fooled Around and Fell in Love,” which climbed to third on the Billboard charts. 

On Friday, Laura Love will entertain fairgoers. 

VanCleve said Love, whose 1997 dance here drew a crowd of about 800, is excited to return to the Chilkat Valley. Fans here are equally enthusiastic,” he said. “You can feel the excitement… The reaction locally has been 100 percent positive. She made quite an impression.” 

Love is hard to classify. “A hip-deep groove, a strong voice and a folk-funk sound bearing traces of African, Appalachian, Celtic and Middle Eastern music are among Laura Love’s musical lures,” said a review in “Utne Reader” magazine. “The clincher is her live show, where she inevitably wows new listeners.” 

VanCleve said the line-up is intended to attract a wide range of fairgoers. “There’s something for everyone. When you mention all three names together, people know at least one and are very excited,” he said. “The idea is to put the names out there and hopefully people will come and fill the town… I think we have the potential to set records this year.” 

He said that scheduling Buckwheat Zydeco to open last year’s fair proved “you can bring a headliner on Thursday and cover your end on it.” 

The fair board decided this winter to put renewed emphasis on entertainment and worked to find the best time to schedule the five-day regional event. 

Although the Southeast Alaska State Fair traditionally has been held in August to maximize exhibits of late-summer crops and flowers, participation in those departments has lagged in recent years. 

Moving the fair up into July may cut some entries but should pay off with greater participation by vendors,” VanCleve said. 

In past year, vendors have passed Haines up in favor of setting up at the Tanana Valley or Palmer fairs, he said. This year’s scheduling should prevent that. 

“We’ll be the first fair,” VanCleve said. 

The fair is asking the borough for $3,000 to build additional vendor booths to accommodate anticipated demand. 

“We hope not only to hire more vendors but pick up new ones,” VanCleve said.  

Editor’s note: This story was published digitally in 2025, but ran originally in print on March 17, 2005.