Organizers of the 47th annual Southeast Alaska State Fair are expecting a bounty of vegetables and berries following recent warm and wet weather, plus some exotic creations from the Panhandle and 23 quilts made in Whitehorse, Y.T.
“The quilting department will be enormous this year,” fair executive director Jessica Edwards said this week.
Non-perishable exhibits can be entered in the fair at Harriett Hall 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. Crops and vegetables, flowers and baked goods are due at Harriett Hall between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Wednesday, July 29. The four-day fair starts Thursday, July 30.
Local gardener Kate Saunders said this year has been ideal for strawberries and raspberries. “For the juiciest berries you need rain and for sweetness you need sun. We’ve had plenty of both this year.”
Saunders will display a chicken and a new chick in the fair’s McPherson Barn, and daughter Elena and friends will enter a student art project as an exhibit. “I like the idea of a fair. I grew up in the Midwest with fairs with whole barns just for cows and others for sheep. You have to have livestock at the fair,” Kate Saunders said.
Exhibits sent from around the Panhandle already at Harriett Hall this week included Mr. Potato Head knitted socks made by Kimberly Baxter of Craig, complete with opposable hands and eyeglasses. The socks are a departure of sorts for Baxter, a trained nurse whose previous knitted creations have included a dissected frog, a glow-in-the-dark neuron and a uterus “with opposable fallopian tubes.”
“I tend to do a lot of science-y things,” Baxter said. She said she “loves the fair,” even though she’s never been to Haines to see it.
Other exhibits included tile mosaics from Gustavus, a wearable art gown from Ketchikan, and homemade fireweed honey from Juneau.
Changes to the fair exhibits this year include categories for the “best selfie” and “best cell phone image.” Gluten-free bakers can enter their favorite cookie recipe, and Wearable Art artists can compete for the best dress made from upcycled or recycled materials.
After a number of years on hiatus, the department superintendent program is back in place. Volunteers in the community who are experts in their field volunteer countless hours to organize the department as a whole, as well as manage the displays and the judging.
All exhibit entries will be returned to their owners after the fair. Department winners may be taken to compete in the Alaska State Fair in Palmer at the end of August, with the exhibitor’s permission.
Exhibit guides are available around town or at seakfair.org/15exhibitguide/. For more information, contact fair exhibits manager Deana Stout at 766-2476.
New offerings at the fair will include a climbing wall, a zip line, and a tour of local gardens departing Sunday from the fairgrounds.
The fair is looking to get approval from a zip line industry group before operating it, fair officials said this week.