Anchorage Daily News

Fur Rendezvous, down and outdated to the point of near extinction just a year ago, is suddenly back on Anchorage's to-do list.

Fur Rendezvous events this past weekend attracted crowds that would have been hard to imagine a year ago, when the winter festival was fighting for its life.

Downtown streets filled for Friday's first day of sled dog races, Saturday's parade and fireworks and Sunday's inaugural Running of the Reindeer, an instant classic that symbolizes Rondy's rapid resurrection.

"When you experience something that is dead -- which was Rondy last year -- it usually takes some time for it to come back," said Jacqueline Leavitt of Golden Wheel Amusement, a Rondy regular since 1967. "So for it to come back and for us to set records in just one year is just amazing."

The carnival logged record-setting business on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Leavitt said.

And it wasn't just the Ferris wheel that got a workout.

Barbara Jean Alberg, a bartender for 20 years at Darwin's Theory, said business was so brisk the G Street tavern ran low on a couple brands of beer.

"I definitely saw an increase in people wanting to join in on the fun and games. We were more crowded and people were more enthusiastic about it," she said. "We were very, very busy. I didn't do anything (Monday) but sleep and lick my wounds. I'm getting too old for this."

IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEMS

Recent years have left some wondering whether Rondy, too, was getting too old.

Once the hottest thing in the Anchorage winter, the 73-year-old festival lately suffered from shrinking crowds and financial crises.

Competition from other entertainment options, warm weather that canceled the marquee World Championship Sled Dog Race three times since 2000 and an expanded menu of events spread all over town combined to diminish interest in Fur Rendezvous. Things were so bad last year, Leavitt said, the carnival lost money.

Organizers at Greater Anchorage Inc., couldn't do much about the weather or competition from other events. But it could address its expanded schedule, and it did.

"We heard people loud and clear," said Susan Duck, who became Fur Rondy's executive director after the 2006 event, when things were at their worst. "Too long, too stale, too spread out and diluted."

Last year, Rondy returned to a 10-day schedule after three years of stretching out over 17 days, reduced the sprawl by keeping as many events downtown as possible, and reached out to people and groups that had given up on Rondy.

'CREATING AND ELEVATING'

This year, it introduced the successful-beyond-imagination Running of the Reindeer, switched the fireworks from the first Friday to the first Saturday, and put together a clever advertising campaign featuring local politicians, athletes, TV and radio personalities and others. The Miners and Trappers Ball is back in the fold, as is the blanket toss.

"Last year was about survival," Duck said. "This year was about creating and elevating."

So far, so good:

• Button and pin sales are booming. The $8.50 pewter pins are sold out, sales of the $8 collector's pins are up 25 percent over last year and the $2 buttons are going like hotcakes, board member Ernie Hall said.

• Participation is up. The Outhouse Races had 17 entries, up from seven a year ago. The Native Arts Market, which opens today at the Dimond Center, has 175 tables of crafts for sale, up from 154 last year. The photography contest has 514 entries, up from 360 last year. Revenue from memberships (which range from $150 to $1,000) is way up, from $3,200 a year ago to $20,000 at the end of January, with more coming in now that Rondy is under way.

• Overall interest is up. Most of the ticketed events -- Rondy on Ice, the Miners and Trappers Ball -- happen this weekend, but there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that people care about Fur Rendezvous again. A big crowd turned out for the fireworks, perhaps because they were moved from Friday, when people are dealing with work and school schedules, to Saturday, when people can spend all day downtown if they choose.

The parade, on its deathbed a year ago, had spectators along the entire route, said longtime participant Neal Haglund. The snow sculptures, the carnival, the pancake feed -- all attracted crowds far bigger than those of recent years. And thousands were on hand for the Running of the Reindeer, video of which is being viewed worldwide.

The Rondy Web site has crashed twice because of heavy traffic, Duck said.

"Our cup runneth over," said Hall, part of a revamped board of directors that is working off a 10-year plan. "The whole goal this year was to get people to re-engage, and this community was ready. They just needed to be invited back.

"It was like we reintroduced Anchorage to Anchorage this past weekend."

Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4309.

RONDY BY THE NUMBERS

Memberships: Up from $3,200 a year ago to $20,000 and counting this year.

Exhibits: Photo entries up from 360 last year to 514 this year; craft tables at the Native Arts Market, which opens today at the Dimond Center, up from 154 tables last year to 175 this year.

Pins: Sales of the $8 collector pins are 25 percent ahead of last year's; $8.50 pewter pins are sold out.

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