New acts, features to greet visitors at this year’s state fair

PALMER — Free music, music you pay for, Egyptian artifacts, giant cabbages and the raffle that goes with them — the Alaska State Fair, as usual, is nothing if not eclectic in its offerings.

It’s not hard to see why. When you get numbers like the 45,000 people who were estimated to have shown up on the first Saturday last year and the more than 300,000 who visited throughout the 12-day event, you need a wide variety of offerings to keep everyone interested.

And, if you don’t know where to find what you’re looking for, volunteers will be there to help you find it.

“Last year the two most-asked questions were, ‘where is the diaper changing area?’ and ‘where is the pork chop on a stick?’” said Dean Phipps, the fair’s Marketing and Communications Director.

One question you won’t need to ask: what new food is there this year?

“We don’t have a new food booth this year that I know of. We do have the strawberry shortcake booth that has moved to one of the log cabin booths,” Phipps said.

But there are plenty of new things this year, including things you might see, things you definitely will see and things you definitely won’t. It’s hard to contain it all in one article, so here is a sampler:

Music: Sometimes local, often free

“That’s a big shift for us and I think it’s by intent,” Phipps said of the move to more free music with fair admission.

Acts included in your ticket price this year include the Young Dubliners and the Prairie League, as well as John McEuen of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Terry McDermott and the Bonfires.

McDermott was runner-up in the third season of the NBC singing competition “The Voice.”

Local acts also are on hand playing free shows. Ken Peltier Band and Hobo Jim will play in the Sluicebox. Lulu Small will play three different venues.

Speaking of local music — Foreigner, one of the headlining acts this year for whom ticket sales, Phipps said, have been going very well — is incorporating some locals into its act in the form of the All-Star Alaska Choir. The fair picked some of those singers and Stan Harris, music teacher at Palmer High School, picked the rest.

“They’re going to sing on stage with Foreigner on that stage,” Phipps said. “That’s something that Foreigner does around the country and they make a donation to the music program for that.”

Above your head and below your feet

The fair received a significant chunk of state money this year to get started on some major capital projects.

“Essentially, we got a sewer system and a major roof on the farm exhibit building,” Fair Director Ray Ritari said “Both will be completed this fall.”

He said that half of the roof on the farm exhibits building is already done.

“Let’s just say that there was a failure. Minor, but it also showed the weakness of the system so from a safety standpoint and from a performance standpoint it needed to be fixed,” Ritari said of the roof

Tires you might have seen up there in past years will be gone.

As for the sewer system, Ritari said the current system is operational, but is maxed out and has design flaws, such as the system now pumps sewage uphill. The new one won’t, which is crucial because the fair has been designated as an emergency shelter.

“One thing we learned with Hurricane Katrina is no matter how world-class your venues are such as the Super Dome and the New Orleans Convention Center, if the sewer system gets backed up there are significant problems,” Ritari said.

The new system, once in place, won’t be anything a fairgoer notices — at least not yet. But since it will allow the fair to add capacity, in the future it will likely mean more toilets.

“There’s a whole area on the north end, the Purple Gate area, that could use some real restrooms as opposed to the porta-potty option, which is what we’ve been doing,” Ritari said.

Also new this year — two new pavilions to protect folks from the rain while they eat.

“BP has graciously stepped up to cover a significant portion of one and the Rasmuson Foundation has stepped in to fund a second portion of one,” Ritari said.

Oh, and those historic log cabins everyone was worried would be closed due to fire codes? Not to worry.

“We’re fine. The vendors that are in there comply with the rules,” Ritari said. “It’s up to them to comply.”

Honoring a fair supporter

At a dedication ceremony Thursday at 2 p.m., the fair will rename the 4-H building after June R. Tull, who passed away in May last year.

“She was a fair member and was very active in the 4-H program for many, many years and had a really positive impact and was a wonderful role model for the 4-Hers,” Ritari said. “As we have other facilities named after Alaskans who have had impact, it is appropriate to have the ‘June R. Tull 4-H Building.’”

Online, in an app, on television

As has been the case for sometime now, the fair’s website lists all the various events. New this year, though, is an organizational tool.

“On the website in the daily schedule section is a new widget that allows you to plan your day,” Phipps said. “You can grab the things that you want to do that day and pull them into your schedule and make your own customized schedule.”

And, if you have a Smartphone, the fair’s got an app for you. Phipps said it has schedules by day or by venue and locations of all the booths. Search for the “Alaska State Fair” application for iPhone and Android.

“It’s a startup, so if you find something let us know,” he said of the new Smartphone app.

Phipps said the Giant Cabbage Weigh-Off — a quintessentially Alaska State Fair event if ever there was one — will be streamed online this year at the fair’s website courtesy of GCI.

GCI will also be there filming the weigh off to broadcast on cable so you can catch it live.

Flowers, pumpkins, mummies and raffles

Phipps said that the fair parade this year incldes a top-secret float from the fair’s head gardener, Becky Myrvold.

But if it goes well, he said, the fair might be interested in entering such a float in some kind of national parade.

Of the non-music and non-food-related things people should check out this year, Phipps singled out two: Pumpkin carving and the King Tut exhibit of reproductions of Egyptian artifacts.

“We have a pumpkin carver who is absolutely amazing,” he said. And, of the Egyptian artifacts: “We’ve arranged to keep that exhibit over after the fair for the entire week and both Anchorage and Mat-Su School districts have signed up to go to that.”

And last, but not least, Phipps said to be sure to get in on the Palmer Rotary Cabbage Classic — buy a ticket to guess the weight of the winning entry. Proceeds go to the Rotary and to the fair’s scholarship fund.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or

andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.