Skagway gets busy as summer cruise season approaches

This past weekend, in the runup to what promises to be a busy summer tourist season in Skagway, the community rolled out the red carpet and hosted several events throughout town. After two years of pandemic-related shutdowns and very little visitor traffic, many in the community of around a thousand were excited to see foreign license plates and unfamiliar faces walking down Broadway again.

Over the weekend Skagway hosted an array of events to kick off the return of long days and tourists from Canada’s Yukon Territory. The lineup of entertainment kicked off with the 32nd Annual Folk Festival on Friday night at the Eagles Theater on Broadway Street.

Caleb Tomlinson from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory was one of the nine acts that played sets on Friday night. He said playing in this year’s folk fest was a happy coincidence.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been here. I love coming down to Skagway and haven’t been able to come down for a bit. This is kind of the first opportunity I’ve had to be able to come down and visit and it happened to be the same weekend as the Folk Festival,” said Tomlinson.

The singer/songwriter has played guitar for about 20 years and said was excited to play original songs at the historic Eagles Theatre. About half of the acts were from Skagway and the other half from Whitehorse.

Saturday saw the first Garden City Market of the season and The Skagway Arts Council’s Spring Show of Winter Work, with local artists on display at AB Hall on Broadway. Later that night the Skagway Brewing Company had a line out the door for live music provided by Skagway musician Juan Solo.

Early Sunday afternoon the Octogenarian Easter Bunny Barb Broderson was escorted to Seven Pastures by the Skagway Fire Department where, in a pink bunny onesie,  she gave out candy to kids from Skagway and Whitehorse during the Annual Easter Egg hunt. She says she’s been involved with the event for over 20 years, but this year’s crowd wasn’t as big as pre-pandemic crowds. She also wasn’t expecting to dress as the Easter Bunny again this year.  

“I turned it over to someone else two years ago, and then she ended up with COVID. So I’m back as the Easter Bunny,” said Broderson.

Kaylynn Howard and her daughter Ava were at their second hunt together.

“You wanna put it in your basket?”  “Yeah.”  “There ya go.”

Ava got a chocolate Easter Bunny from the Easter Bunny.

Lynn Stevens has coordinated the volunteer-run event for the last 35 years. She says the AC Fairway Market donated five cases of eggs for this year’s hunt and on Friday a group of volunteers gathered at the local Elk’s lodge to boil and dye them. Most years, they come out a couple of hours before the kids show up to hide them around the park.

“But this year the birds started eating them, so we waited until just before time, and we were a little late…” said Stevens.

There were different areas for different age groups. Catherine Stewart helped hide some of the eggs, but she was secretive about the grand prize Golden Egg.

“First you have to hide the Golden Egg,” whispered Stewart.

“You’ve got the golden egg?” Asked an onlooker.

“Yeah,” replied Stewart.

“Where are you gonna put it?” Prodded the onlooker.

“Yeah right, I’m not fooled so easy,” laughed Stewart.

Atlin Ryan found the Golden Egg this year with a $10 bill inside.

 

The Spring Show of Winter Work will continue next weekend at AB Hall Friday through Sunday. Skagway’s Fraternal Order of Eagles will also host the State Convention this weekend, meaning hotel rooms are in short supply. That is great news for local businesses hoping to rebound after two years of very limited visitors.