Forest Fair, in its 51st Year, Launches This Weekend

Tara Starlight makes some minor changes to her coffee booth Thursday. Two disco balls glitter in the sun. (Photo by Soren Wuerth)

By Soren Wuerth

TNews Editor

Tara Starlight was putting the final touches on her booth "Starlight Coffee" when a volunteer approached. "Do you want some coffee?" she asked. "This one's on the house."

She was ready to go Thursday afternoon with a beverage menu of coffee, cold brew, mocktails and a special concoction called "Raspberry Danish":  cold brew with a cream cheese soft top. 

Starlight is in her second year as a vendor and took an opportunity to move her stand to a new location near the ballfield fence. "I can see the main stage from here," she said, smiling. Last year she said she sold at least 1,000 cold drinks alone. 

Her crew is her family. "The teenagers are sleeping in the back of the van," said Starlight, who works for the Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition. 

Meghan Espey, Brice Wilbanks and Mike Ingerson prep the wine bar with last minute changes Thursday afternoon. (Photo by Soren Wuerth)

Meanwhile, across a cluttered path, the Talkeetna Spinach Bread crew was busy assembling its stand. The widely popular food booth began more than two decades ago, said owner Ross Benischek. He nodded toward his son Finn, 22. "During our first year, my wife was pregnant with him," Benischek said.

Since lines are long for the crispy, garlicky, cheese-topped bread, Forest Fair volunteers moved the youth performance stage closer to the bread stand's queue, said Terri Adkins, the event's vice president. Youth performances run 11 a.m. through 5 p.m. on Saturday.

And while a couple new food booths have cropped up—like "Papaya Tree", which sells Southeast Asian street food—a main attraction may be the Fair's revamped wine garden. 

Adkins said she was in Houston, Texas, on a work trip when she walked into Sixty Vines, a restaurant serving 60 different wines all on tap.

"I said, 'Oh my God, this is so cool,'" Adkins said.

She investigated the idea more and, with SJ Klein, who heads the Fair's beer and wine gardens, found distributors and put together a tap system that will serve 12 "varietals'—wines made from a single variety—at a time, as well as sake and bubbles.

"We're kind of picky about what we like," she said, adding she hopes the new tap system trends to other festivals such as the Alaska State Fair and Salmonfest. 

Brice Wilbanks, a wine garden volunteer who helped choose some of the wines, estimated that the new wine bar would save at least 600 bottles from going to the landfill. Among wines on tap will be a French Rosé, a Sauvignon from New Zealand and two Pinots from a Willamette Valley winery, he said.

"The wine bar is looking beautiful," he said.

Rosie Szymanski strings up fairy wreathes Thursday in the booth, Inglorious Crafters, she has managed with her daughter, Rosebud Etheridge, for 10 years.

For this year's Forest Fair, locals could "Adopt a Placard" by taking home a blank highway sign weeks in advance of the event to design and paint their own message.

"We put it out there (an app on Girdwood's Facebook page) and gave people four weeks to work on the placard," Adkins said. Though the messages were predetermined, artists were given the "liberty to change wording."

"People felt like they were a part of not just Forest Fair, but part of the community," Adkins said. She said locals showed up at the Alpenglow Coffee House every Wednesday since April to make pins for the event.  

"We're building community around a community-driven event," Adkins said.