2024 Colony Days draws thousands of visitors

PALMER — The 2024 Colony Days festival drew thousands of visitors to downtown Palmer for three days of fun filled festivities.

Colony Days is hosted by the Greater Palmer Chamber of Commerce and draws visitors from across the Mat-Su Valley and beyond. It features a wide variety of events, activities, and vendor markets.

"I think it went off spectacularly. I have not heard a negative comment. We accomplished it very well," Greater Palmer Chamber of Commerce Board President Kelly McKay-Dolfi said. “We just really appreciate the entire community coming in and celebrating with us.”

According to McKay-Dolfi, an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 people attended Colony Days this year. She said this year's parade was packed with enthusiastic spectators and it featured one the largest number of floats to date.

“I had so many people tell me the parade was absolutely fabulous. I'm very happy about that," McKay-Dolfi said.

Local families were able to enjoy a wide variety of free events and activities throughout the three day festival thanks to local groups with community minded volunteers.

Free activities ranged from Thrive Mat-Su facilitating a family fun area with activities such as crafts, bubble making, and s'more cooking to a petting zoo hosted by Palmer FFA.

“That's what we were shooting for. It definitely made it feel better," McKay-Dolfi said. “We'd like to continue to build off of that. It's about the community. It's about Palmer and all the families that live there are a part of it.”

A longstanding Colony Days tradition is the annual Tent City Market hosted by the Palmer Historical Society.

“I think it was great," Palmer Historical Society President Sheri Hamming said. “It's good to see everybody. We meet a lot of people from all over it's really fun "

The Tent City Market features a variety of vintage and antique items that are sold to raise funds for Palmer Historical Society's preservation projects.

“There's a lot of neat treasures that people find every year," Hamming said.

Hamming said the Palmer Historical Society has been involved with Colony Days for many years and it feels like a fitting match.

“We support it 100 percent,” Hamming said.

Colony Days is Palmer's longest held community event dating back to the original colony from the 1930s. Hamming said it started out as a celebration of the colonists’ harvest that ultimately evolved into the large-scale community gathering that brings people together to kick off the summer.

“I think it's fun for the community to get together and celebrate Palmer's agricultural history,” Hamming said. “People always like to see tractors.”

Another staple of Colony Days is the annual Tractor Pull hosted by the Antique Power Club of Alaska.

“This is just fun," Antique Power Club of Alaska President Richard Greeno said.

Greeno said their club members bring a variety of vintage tractors to Colony Days and many of them were used on the original colony farms. He said their event pays tribute to Palmer's agricultural history

“This is how farmers play, just see who can pull the most,” Greeno said.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com