So you say your wallet’s flatter than the halibut you caught this summer? Is the cost of admission, rides and food at the Alaska State Fair making twin dollar signs pop into your eyes like a slot machine?
Having fun at the fair doesn’t have to cost an arm and a turkey leg. There are lots of free things to do once you get inside the gates. And today is 2 Buck Tuesday, so admission is a real deal. Show up between 10 a.m. and noon and pay your $2, then check out these free attractions.
Top 10 cheap things to do on 2 Buck Tuesday
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1. GREAT ALASKA RACING PIGS: The popular event has been cooling its hooves the past couple years, but the Kenai Peninsula Racing Pigs have stepped up to provide porcine squealing at 1:30, 4 and 7 p.m. daily through Aug. 31 at Matanuska Maid Corral.
2. CUTE KIDS AND ANIMALS: Small Fry Showmanship, 7 p.m. in the Farm Exhibits Building. There’s nothing cuter than kids and animals. If the 8-and-younger set showing their farm animals doesn’t make you smile, you’re a giant cabbage.
3. ACROBATS AND DANCERS: Each year, fair organizers book acts from far and wide that perform free for fair visitors. The Black Angels African Acrobats juggle while riding unicycles, create human pyramids and perform other daring feats at 1, 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. daily in Pioneer Plaza. The percussive dance foursome Powerhouse performs at 2 p.m., 4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. on the Colony Stage and at various times and locations other days.
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4. FOOD FOR $5 AND UNDER: If you have a family to feed, slide on over to St. Michael’s Slippery Gulch for reasonably priced homemade soup ($2.75 cup, $3 bowl), homemade pie ($3), brownies ($1.25), grilled cheese or PB&J sandwich ($2), grilled ham and cheese ($2.50), quarter-pound hamburgers or veggie burgers ($4.50), chili burger ($5), all-beef hot dogs ($2.25), coffee (50 cents) or hot chocolate and cider ($1). The all-volunteer staff helps keep prices down, and covered seating is a bonus.
Then hop over to Hoop N Hulas Milk and Cookies for scrumptious cookies with no skimping on the nuts and chocolate chips for $2.25 each. It’ll make you feel rich when they donate 50 cents from each cookie to the charity of your choice.
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5. FREE MUSIC, NOT-SO-CHEAP BEER: Spend an hour nursing a $5 Widmer Hefeweizen, Alaskan Amber, Foster’s or other fine brews on tap at the smoke-free Sluice Box. Bust a move on a real plywood dance floor to world funk by Dave Edwards-Smith (2 p.m.), covers by Swamp Angel Road (3:30 p.m.), rock by Time to Live (5 p.m.), music to pound nails by from Carhartt Brothers Band (7 p.m.) or Motown and soul by Nathan Owens (8:30 p.m.)
6. CARHARTT TALES: Drag your nastiest Carhartts into the light and tell your best Carhartt story at 1 p.m., or model your tarted-up Carhartts at the Carhartt Fashion Show at 3:30 p.m. , both on the Bluebonnet Stage. Teams of two compete in the Carhartt relay race at 6:30 p.m. on the office lawn. Prizes are new Carhartts. Free.
7. FREE POKER ENTRY: Sign up at the Oasis Beer Tent through Thursday or the Miller Event Tent on Friday to compete in the Alaska State Fair Poker Classic. There are 160 slots for competitors, and most of them are filled by people who qualified through heats in Anchorage and the Valley in past weeks. But fair organizers will draw 40 entries for free seats in the competition. If your name is drawn, be at the fair gates by 3 p.m. Friday to get free fair admission. The classic starts at 4 p.m. Friday in the Miller Event Tent, followed by the championships at 7:30 p.m.
8. MEET SMOKEY: Celebrate a 100 years of Chugach National Forest with free temporary tattoos, free hugs from Smokey the Bear and free helium balloons and stickers that say “I (Heart) the Chugach.”
9. EDUCATIONAL FUN: Science meets fun at the MTA Creation Station. Test your hand strength at Get a Grip, measure how long you can hang from a bar at Hang Time, see how high you can jump at the Vertical Vault, find out how much you’d weigh on the moon and Mars, or check your reaction time at Reaction Attraction, an electronic version of Whack the Mole.
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10. MONSTER VEGGIES: Ogle the Guinness Book world-record kale grown by Scott Robb of Palmer (84.7 pounds) and the state-record parsnip grown by Ron Castor of Palmer (5.25 pounds) at the Farm Exhibits Building. See a 19.24-pound turnip and a 5.454-pound puffball mushroom. Or watch baby chicks peck their way into the world in the egg incubator.
FREE THINGS TO DO OTHER DAYS DURING THE FAIR
Can’t swing a trip to Palmer today? Join the Green Star fair recycling crew for a four-hour shift and get free admission and parking the day (or days) you volunteer. You’ll also make a dent in the landfill: Since 2002, the crew has recycled 50 tons of waste. There are lots of shifts available; visit www.greenstarinc.org to sign up, or call 278-7839 for information.
• CONCERTS: Tim Rigney & Flambeau play fiery Cajun, low-down blues, funky New Orleans grooves and heartbreakingly beautiful ballads and waltzes, 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday at Borealis Theatre.
Alaska Native Cultural Celebration will feature famous Athabaskan fiddler Bill Stevens. (Craig Mishler describes Athabaskan fiddling as a “powerful, beautiful sound with a repertoire that is different from any other style of fiddle music,” in his book “The Crooked Stovepipe.”) The Tlingit and Haida Dancers, Keys Point Band and others round out the free performance, 1-4 p.m. Monday, Borealis Theatre.
• GIANT PUMPKINS AND CABBAGES: The Giant Pumpkin Weigh-off is noon-3 p.m. Wednesday, Farm Exhibits Building. Last year’s winner topped 1,019 pounds. Stay for Alaska-grown contests at 1 p.m., including speed pea shelling, hay bale tossing, rock painting, musk ox chip throwing, and dancing with a jar of cream until it turns into butter. The Giant Cabbage Weigh-off is at 6 p.m. Friday, Farm Exhibits Building.
• FREE SAMPLES: Sample contestants’ chicken, fish, veggies and other grilled food and vote for people’s choice in the Grillin’ & Chillin’ Cook-Off. Judging starts at 3:30 p.m. Friday on the patio at the Grandstand Tent.
• FIREWORKS: Stay for the fireworks at 10 p.m. Friday. The hands-down best place to watch is from high atop the Ferris wheel. Or get the full oooh-ahhh audience-participation fix at the Grandstand. Both beat watching from the car in a parking lot while you wait in line to leave.
• A-MAZE THE KIDS: Send the kids through the Children’s Garden Maze and peer over the hedge while they meet Boris the Bashful Giant and Victor the Dragon. Open until 10 p.m. daily.
• JOIN THE RAT RACE: Lay down a 25-cent bet at the Elks Charity Rat Race wheel and see which color hole Speedy the gerbil chooses to dive down. (Must be 19 to bet, or have mom or dad in tow). Or just stand around and yell, “Run, Forrest, Run!”
• ADMIRE QUILTS: Be dazzled by the display of fabulous quilts made by people with more-than-average patience at the Irwin Building. There’s a quilt show 1-8 p.m. daily on the hour.
• CHILL OUT: Sit on the bench among the foxglove and lilies at the back of the perennial garden and listen to the fair hubbub recede. Free.
Find Rose Cox online at adn.com/contact/rcox or call 257-4469.
