Upgraded rides, new musical performances, annual contests and an array of delectable dishes will be featured at this year’s Southeast Alaska State Fair.
“I’m really excited to just see how it all comes together. I’m excited about everything,”
executive director of the fair, Kari Johnson said.
Headliners
“The music will be great. We have a lot of new performers,” Johnson said.
On Friday, headliners Arietta Ward (a.k.a. Mz. Etta) and the Voices of Greatness and the New Orleans five-piece band Smoke N Bones will perform soul and funk.
Ward is a Portland, Oregon native, and daughter of one of the city’s jazz darlings, Janice Scroggins. “I am indeed my mother’s child. All the music, all the songs, these are my stores. They’re stories that need to be told, and I am here to tell them,” Ward said about her music on her website. She has sung joyous, soulful music for audiences throughout the Pacific Northwest. Ward and the Voices of Greatness will play on the Main Stage on Friday at 7:30 p.m., followed by a New Orleans band Smoke N Bones at 9:30 p.m.
“It’s the first time Smoke N Bones has been up (to Alaska),” said the band’s guitarist and founder Billy Franklin. Franklin has received eight “Best of New Orleans” awards for his music, and together the band has played with prominent New Orleans jazz musicians including Trombone Shorty, Kermit Ruffinns, Bill Summers and Karl Denson. “We’re psyched to get up there…We’ve heard really good things about the fair, and of course getting out of New Orleans in late July. It’s always sweltering at this time.”
On Friday at 4 p.m. Smoke N Bones will lead a workshop. “(The workshop) will be about New Orleans rhythms,” said the band’s guitarist and founder Billy Franklin. He said the workshop will explore the traditions and history of the city’s rhythm and music. Smoke N Bones is also performing a feature called “Six Decades of Soul” on Saturday at 7 p.m. They will perform covers of six songs from the 1960s to 2010, and will be followed by that night’s headliners, the Grammy-winning Latino-pop group Ozomatli.
Ozomatli is a Los Angeles-based band has played for audiences across the globe, including in China, Tunisia, Jordan, Madagascar and Myanmar. In addition to playing wide range of music, the band is known for their social activism, advocating for farm-workers’ rights and immigration reform. In more than 20 years of traveling, performing and activism, the band has been called “cultural ambassadors,” by the Los Angeles Times, and in 2013, the city declared April 23 Ozomatli Day.
Rides and contests
Johnson said there are no new rides this year, but “we did go through a ride inspection and upgraded a lot of (them).” That includes the carousel, the Ferris Wheel, the train, the climbing wall, the mega slide (a large tube-slide) and three inflatable rides: the bouncy house, the bungee run and jousting on large inflatable platforms.
The fair will feature annual contests, including the third annual Southeast Strong competition. The competition includes four events, but organizer Marni Hartman says participants can do any or all of the events. The first two events are pull ups and giant tire flipping. The third event is a goblet battle, where participants do 20 goblet squats and 20 rope slams. The final event is a box-jump farmer-carry, where participants jump over 24-inch-high boxes 20 times, and then pick up 50 to 75-pound dumb bells and carry them across a 50-foot distance. The competition is open to people ages 16 years and older.
The Beach Wrestling contest will be open to people of all ages, Hartman said. “We do a youth category and age-match. We do a gendered category (too) that’s age and size-matched.” Beach wrestling takes place on the volleyball court behind Ravyn’s Café, and takes place in a large circle. “Take-downs or push-outs only,” said Hartman. “Either take someone out of bounds or take them off their feet (to win)” she said.
Fare
In between concerts, rides and contests, fair-goers will be able to taste from more than 20 vendors, Johnson said, including burritos, hamburgers, kettle corn, corn on the cob, hot dogs, ice cream, as well as ethnic Mediterranean, Mexican and Eastern European food.
New this year, Chef Travis Kukull said he will offer “curry-wursts,” curry-infused bratwursts invented in Germany in 1949. “I guess my curry-wurst would be a Southeast Asia adaptation of the sausage,” Kukull said. Over the past week, Kukull said he has made 400 curry-wursts made of pork infused with Malawi curry spice, and 400 bratwurst buns cooked on charcoal. He has prepared homemade sauerkraut, sambal, and other toppings for the curry-wursts, but is offering vegetarian and gluten free options as well.
Vija Pelekis will serve homemade falafel at her Mediterranean food stand. “We will have handmade falafels fried, served with local greens from Four Winds Farm, and pretty much everything green, minus the cucumbers, are local. We will also be serving homemade hummus. Everything is made from scratch, including homemade baklava,” said Pelekis. “And weather (permitting) we will either have fresh, hand squeezed lavender or rose lemonade, or local teas.”
