CHINOOK, Mont. (NMB) – The Chinook Chamber of Commerce is hosting an abbreviated Sugarbeet Festival this Saturday.
The Festival typically lasts an entire weekend, but due to COVID-19, Chamber President Daniel Dahl says they chose to condense it down to one day.
“We just want to keep things simple. We’re just doing a fun run, a parade and basically a concert at night, a live-band concert downtown. We’ve gotten a really good response from vendors. A lot of vendors want to come, so we’re excited. It’s homecoming weekend for the football team, so we’ll have a pretty good amount of people here from the community still. We also have the gun show going on, which will be good too, just to have one day full of activities. It’s fall time, it’s getting colder, so we figured this would be the last time we could really do something nice outside. We wanted to bring a little normalcy into our community after the crazy year we’ve had…We’re going to space everything out. We’re going to have signs and hand sanitizer stations. Just make sure everyone practices safe COVID measures and we’re not trying to get each other sick. Just trying to have a little fun before it gets cold.”
The live band performing is Havre-based band Blind Luck. They will be performing classic rock and country music downtown at 7 PM.
The parade will begin at 5:30 PM and will feature several floats and people giving out candy.
“It’s going to be pretty normal. We are encouraging everyone that’s going to be handing out candy to wear gloves. Candy has to be individual wrapped and they might be thrown instead of handing it out this year so there’s less contact. We’re hoping for some stuff. We have a few floats so far, which has been great…We’re not charging this year because of COVID-19 and everything. Businesses have suffered. So the Chamber is kind of footing the bill with the money we have in savings. For about everything, we’re not asking for any sponsorships or anything like that this year. We’re only asking for vendor spots to pay.”
For the second straight year, the Festival will coincide with the Rod and Gun Show, which will take place from 9 AM-5 PM at the Commercial Building at the Fairgrounds.
Other events include a vendor show, a buisness decorating contest, a sugarbeet and pumpkin decorating contests, and a business punch card that people can fill out for a chance to win prizes.
Most events are free of charge to attend, but registration for the Fun Run, which begins at 8 AM, costs $5.
For more information, visit the Chinook Chamber’s Facebook page.
