Southeast Alaska State Fair wraps up four-days of festivities in Haines

The Southeast Alaska State Fair wrapped up its four-day run of festivities this weekend. Despite a smaller crowd due to rising COVID-19 cases, border restrictions and other complications, people from across the region came together for a weekend of fun and community. KHNS’ Corinne Smith reports. 

 

The crowds were thinner on Sunday, the final day of the Southeast Alaska State Fair but kids were back at the carnival games and rides, families flock to the food court for more delicious bites, there’s more live music, a disc golf tournament and high schoolers play a fast paced volleyball game.

Nearby, Harriet Hall houses this year’s fair exhibits, where artists and makers of all ages from across Southeast Alaska and the Yukon display their work. By Sunday, the prizes have been awarded. Purple, blue and red ribbons adorn wall displays of photography, quilts, cases of jams, and wearable art pieces some that went down the runway the day before. 

Exhibitor Darrel Jerue of Klukwan is there to collect two beadwork pieces, for which he won Division Champion and first place — his first entry at Southeast’s fair.

“I’ve got a stargazer lily, about four by six (inches), it takes about six months to do each piece that large. And also have the wet raven. It has the sun, the moon and also the Earth in there.”

Jerue says he learned beading from his mother, Sally Burratin who passed away last March. 

“She taught me how to do all this,” he said. 

He says the public reception at the fair has been overwhelmingly positive, but still, he’s missing her. So he’s unsure where his beadwork will go next. 

“Right now, I put myself in a predicament where I can’t touch a needle until probably next year, after the one year mark on my mom’s death. It’s hard for me to start a project because she was always there for me, to say there, it’s good… She was always a mentor for me.”

The Raven piece will be incorporated into a traditional blanket that was started by his mother, and be completed by several family members, and then displayed at the Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center in Klukwan.

Outside the hall, the disc golf tournament is wrapping up with the group receiving awards and cash prizes. TeoLani Baker of Haines is seven months pregnant and won the women’s division for the second year in a row, while her husband Colton Baker won the men’s. 

“Luck. I think makes it the most fun, you can’t ever get too good that you might not lose.”

As the fair winds down, volunteers with Haines Friends of Recycling begin sorting big bags of compost and recyclables from trash, as part of the fair’s zero-waste effort. 

All fair food vendors are required to use compostable plates and utensils. Chair of Haines Friends of Recycling, Melissa Aronson says the initiative has had a huge impact in diverting waste and saving money at the dump, and each year she sees improvement. 

“They used to bring a great big Conex in here and fill it up, you know, sometimes more than once over the course of the fair. This year they just brought one bear-proof canister….so that seems to be really improving, people are paying attention.”

The last event of the fair weekend is a pie fight in Raven’s Arena, on par with the fair’s theme this year – “Live Free Pie Hard.” 

Within minutes, kids and adults are covered in pie, as a crowd cheers from the stands, and with that, the Southeast Alaska State Fair is over. 

It was the first fair since the pandemic as last year’s event was canceled altogether. As a precaution, fair organizers recommended masking and social distancing, but very few people appeared to be taking these precautions. Also, attendees were asked to jot down their names and phone numbers at the entrance, in case contact tracers had to get in touch later. Organizers haven’t released the numbers of ticket sales from this year. But they estimate past year’s crowds have reached 11,000 people. This year was a significantly smaller crowd.