Before opening the fair midway is a confusion of trucks, vans, trailers, sweaty men with power tools, and ladders, booths rise like mushrooms from piles of metal tubes and canvas, others are towed into place or moved from storage tacky shack city by lumbering loaders. This summer Purple Trail spaces were renumbered cramming them closer to the entrance and we found our booth jammed against the big red halibut hutch next door. Spewing hot air and smelly fumes the cooking vent is inches from our wooden wall and underneath our ten foot tall eaves. A huge Ameri Gas propane tank blocked access down the skinny alley and rested partially under our camper. Discovering the jerry rigged set-up the Fire Marshall mirrored our concern. “Nothing we can do this year,” he said, “But next year this has to change, it is a fire hazard.” Hmmmmmm….. I thought, unless we burn down. Cough, cough, yuck fumes and hot grease odor already penetrating our abode.
Behind the false facade of concessions is different world; make-shift tents, campers, trailers, vehicles, tangled power cords and portable out-houses create temporary living quarters for vendors. Our camper is hopelessly trapped behind our coop, wedged inches from a larger RV, a big tent with a wood floor blocking the exit. Last year we waited two weeks after closing to load the camper onto the truck, now it is squeezed tighter. Everything looks like was dropped like pick-up-stix intermixed, jumbled without a plan. I wondered why? Walking away from the plaza toward the gates spaces seem bigger. Is it my imagination?
With the help of friends we moved everything from the studio to the booth in two hours, ten hours later the walls were hung with framed art. Everything is in place, clean, neat, tidy and ready to go. It looks good inside. Outside the crazy hammering traffic jam continued until moments before opening then smiling people flooded the trails and the 2009 Alaska State Fair began!
Gail Niebrugge, landscape artist
