Jessica Edwards said she was “dumbfounded” by this week’s weather forecast predicting sunshine for the 46th Southeast Alaska State Fair, sandwiched between cloudy days during a record soggy summer.
“It looks like we may be lucky. Cross your fingers,” said Edwards, the fair’s executive director.
The annual celebration of the region’s culture was to start at noon Thursday and continue through 4 p.m. Sunday at the fairgrounds. A musician playing a homemade bass strung with a weed-whacker line, aerialists from Skagway and a Cajun food booth are among new fair offerings.
On Tuesday, sound technician Mark Alton of Juneau covered the Main Stage’s bass speakers with tarp to keep them dry. Piles of cords and wires lay on the stage. Alton’s preparations also included time-delaying speakers.
Electricity goes faster than sound so if speakers aren’t properly delayed, echoes occur, he explained. “Sound is a complicated thing.”
Alton said he’s excited to be working with stage manager Betsy Sims of Juneau, who he called a “whiz.” Working on her laptop, Sims was creating a color-coded chart, mapping out instruments, microphones and positioning.
For keeping the show organized “it’s worth it to put the time into the plan,” Sims said.
Renee Hoffman was at her fair booth that sells ice-cream sandwiches, root beer floats, fruit bars, sundaes, and kettle corn. She took out sparkly silver streamers. “You gotta make your booth flashy,” she said.
Except for a sink that wasn’t working, everything seemed to be going fine. Hoffman makes about 150 ice-cream sandwiches each year and goes through more than 80 gallons of ice cream.
Friend Melanie Coleman of Juneau and daughter Cora, 5, also were helping. During the fair, Cora sits in the booth, smiling and winking, Hoffman said. “She gets people to leave good tips.”
Exhibits were on display in Harriett Hall. In quilting, resident Leslee Downer took the senior division blue ribbon for her “Bali Wedding Star” quilt. She also won division champion, best of class, judges’ choice, and department champion.
The Native arts category included the work of 9-year-old Malia Jorgenson-Geise, whose red cedar frog paddle, measuring over three feet, won first place, best of class, and division champion in the junior division. A large watercolor painting of three climbers ascending a mountain earned Yvonne Hawe of Haines Junction, Y.T., first place, judges’ choice, and best of class in the professional division of fine arts.
Also on display were a twig high chair and crib made without nails or screws by resident Jim Wilson. Wilson said he made the items for daughter Molly in 1987, using only hand tools, when he was living in a beached floathouse without electricity.
Volunteers this week were setting up fencing in McPherson Barn, where the livestock exhibits were to include alpacas, billy goats, a Shetland pony, ducks, chickens, geese and a turkey.
Ryan Parker and Danina Daniel are running “Cajun Gold,” offering gumbo, jambalaya and fried, stuffed jalapeno peppers, wrapped in bacon. Parker, who grew up in southeast Texas, said his parents also are here to help.
Fair director Edwards said that most of the acts signed up so far for Thursday’s “Southeast’s Got Talent” are singers. A storytelling act and a skit were also on the schedule. She’s hoping for 16-20 acts. First prize in both the youth and adult categories is $400.
The new buildings in Dalton City may not get painted in time due to rain, Edwards said. But other than that, things are mostly on schedule.
Fair workers and volunteers have been chipping away in preparation for the big weekend. It’s been “orchestrated chaos,” Edwards said.