Don’t expect a down moment this weekend. This year’s 46th annual Southeast Alaska State Fair has something for everyone. Beyond music and food, artists, athletes, and beasts alike will have a chance to unleash their inner fair. Game on.
GRAND PARADE
The fair parade is a delight for all ages. Lee Heinmiller, coordinator of the parade, describes the event as a real surprise, open to all comers and typically less formal than the town’s Fourth of July parade. “You never know what they’re going to do,” he said, “but it’s always interesting to see.”
Royal Canadian Mounted Police, satirical political floats and even large, unmentionable body parts have shown up in the fair parade, which is more typically anchored by community groups, most lovable dog contestants and the Haines Community Marching Band. This year, Haines High School reunion participants will be riding the “Green Dragon,” a sightseeing cart.
“A lot of the time, even the morning of (the parade) people are scrambling to put the finishing touches on their floats,” Heinmiller says. Floats get extra points for incorporating the fair theme. This year’s theme is, “Unleash Your Inner Fair” and participants are encouraged to let their imaginations run wild.
Lineup for the parade is 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the former Elks Lodge building at Sixth and Main. The parade starts at 11 a.m. The judge’s stand is at Second and Main.
LOGGING SHOW
Even if your experience in the woods is limited to trimming brush and cutting firewood, you’re welcome to enter the annual logging show, one of the oldest and most beloved events at the Southeast Alaska State Fair. Events include axe-throwing, power-bucking, two-person crosscut sawing, obstacle bucking and choker setting.
“People can do any event they want. We’ll take anybody. They have to pay the entry fee and they’re golden,” said organizer James Sage. An entry fee of $10 per event is charged, and cash prizes are awarded. The competition is mostly coed and features events that test real timbering skills, including obstacle bucking, where entrants climb on an extended limb with a chainsaw to chop off the end.
Sage said many of the old-time loggers are retired, but laymen can put on a good show, including in events like log-rolling, where two competitors try to dance each other off a timber floating in pool. It helps to be nimble, or at least resilient, in events like choker-setting, which involve leaping across giant logs – and possibly falling on them. “That wood doesn’t give much,” Sage said.
FISHERMAN’S RODEO
Men, women, and children are welcome at this year’s Fisherman’s Rodeo, 4 p.m. Saturday next to the logging show area behind Harriett Hall. It features six contests including gear baiting, a tug-of-war free-for-all, youth herring toss, survival suit race and lure casting. This year’s event has an emphasis of fun for all ages, as this is the first year to offer competition for kids as well. “Bring in the family,” said coordinator Julie Leonard.
As well as opening the rodeo to children, this is also the first year that entry into the fisherman’s rodeo events is free. The rodeo is “hoping to have more contests and more contestants” this year, Leonard said.
Registration lasts until 3 p.m. Saturday at the fair information booth. Cash prizes will be offered, as well as “catch of the day” XtraTuf boots for men, women, and kids. The rodeo this week was looking to borrow survival suits. Call the fair at 766-2476.
LOVABLE DOG CONTEST
Enter your four-legged friend in the Most Lovable Dog Contest Saturday by registering at 10:30 a.m. at Sixth Avenue and Main Street. Dogs will strut their stuff in the Main Street parade beginning at 11 a.m. Dogs parade to Tlingit Park, where pooches will be judged in categories including hairiest, tallest, only a mother could love, cutest, most obnoxious, most Alaskan and more. Finalists in the best trick, look-a-like and best dressed categories will be judged at 1 p.m. Saturday on the fair’s main stage. For more information, call Nicole at Haines Animal Rescue Kennel, 766-3334.
DISC GOLF
Want to have a crack at disc throwing? Beginners are encouraged at the fair’s 10th annual disc golf tournament, to be held 10 a.m. Sunday. A cash prize will be offered to the winner of the event’s amateur division and playing discs will be available for purchase before the competition on the 18-hole course surrounding the fairgrounds. Players hurl discs toward nine beer-keg “holes,” aiming to complete each hole in as few throws as possible.
In his third year arranging the already popular event, Jeremy Reed is hoping for an even larger turnout than the 16 takers he typically gets, aiming to make things “bigger and better.” Prizes, Reed says, will be “sprinkled throughout the tournament,” including for overall winners and best throws. The entry fee is $10 for advanced players and $5 for novices. Call 303-2249.
FIDDLE CONTEST
Young or old, local or out of town, everyone is welcome to compete in the Fiddle Contest. Katya Kirsch, who’s organizing the contest this year, says it’s “a good place to play in front of people,” offering an opportunity for children and adults that may be difficult to find elsewhere.
A cash prize of $100 will be shared among contestants, and the first-place winner will have the chance to perform on the Main Stage. Contestants can play multiple tunes and can play solo or with accompaniment. The contest takes place 1 p.m. Friday on the Park Stage. Signup is at the fair information booth.
VOLLEYBALL
TOURNAMENT
The state fair offers one of the few beach volleyball pits in the region. Founder Tomi Scovill and friends created the court with imported sand near the Klondike Saloon about 20 years ago. The single-elimination tournament is open to four-person, coed squads. “We’ve had some really competitive play. A team from Gustavus a few years ago had some incredible diving and spiking,” Scovill said this week.
There’s no entry fee and winners get championship T-shirts and bragging rights. Register before the event starts, 11 a.m. Sunday near the Klondike stage. Call 766-2940 for more information.
RUNS AT THE FAIR
Options for runners are numerous at the fair. This year marks the third year of the Adventure Run, which has gone from zombies to aliens to beasts, in line with the fair’s theme, “Unleash Your Inner Fair.” Starting 4 p.m. Friday in Dalton City, contestants will run for their lives, swerving past obstacles and avoiding the small, swift beasts that are “less people-like, more animal-like,” says coordinator Eric Forster.
This year’s run will be tougher than past runs, with more obstacles, and a mud crawl, a scramble over the logging arena, and other obstacles. Anyone is welcome to view the spectacle. “It’s as much fun to watch someone get hit in the face with a fire hose than it is to get hit in the face with a fire hose,” Forster said. A cash prize is offered for first-place man and woman finishers. Entry fee is $5.
For the less daring runner, the 7th annual Haines Hustle Fun Run on Saturday morning features 5K and 10K events around town and a trail half-marathon on a 13-mile course that includes Mount Riley Trail. Fair organizers say the marathon will be easier this year due to a change in routes and chalk trails can partially aid a runner’s journey. Walkers and strollers are welcome. Race-day entry fee is $12. Registration for all runs is at the information booth. The runs start Saturday at 8 a.m. at the fairgrounds entrance.
WEARABLE ART SHOW
The Wearable Art Show is a “runway fashion show of weird things,” according to Jessica Edwards, contest planner. Every year, more and more people come to see the otherworldly beauty pageant.
Last year’s show featured a robot boy, a girl in a candy wrapper dress, and a gang of chickens prancing down the runway.
This year will feature “amazing dresses,” Edwards said, including entries from Sitka, Ketchikan and Juneau. Outfits include ones incorporating coffee filters, bubble wrap, soda can tops and duct tape. Among entries will be resident Trudy Blume’s dress made from photographic slide sheets, disassembled into squares of her original art. The dress also is entered as an exhibit in recycling.
The Wearable Art Show starts 5 p.m. Friday on the Main Stage. Sign-up is at the information booth.