Chinook Sugarbeet Festival kicks off Friday

This weekend the Hi-Line festival season returns to where it starts each year — Blaine County which has an early fair — for the season finale, the 8th Annual Sugarbeet Festival.

Like last weekend's Havre Festival Days, the Sugarbeet Festival is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of its county.

The festivities begin Friday afternoon, with the 1:30 p. m. Chinook High School Homecoming Parade downtown.

Later that night the Homecoming game will see the 2010 state champion Sugarbeeters take on the Centerville Miners at Hoon Field, behind Chinook High School south of 9th Street.

The earlier parade is also the first chance for shoppers — maybe with the upcoming holidays in mind — to browse the vendor booths that will be set up downtown, from 1 to 6 p. m. Friday and from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. Saturday.

Saturday is full of activities, from Dan's Auto Parts Breakfast at the Senior Citizens Center, which starts at 8 a. m. and ends at 10 a. m., to the Dennis Wisch concert in the Chinook High School auditorium at 7:30 p. m.

Around 9 a. m., many signups for later fun begin, including car show registration, the farmer's market and the start of entry for the annual Sugarbeet growing competition, for which judging starts at 11 a. m.

The middle of the day is filled with historic tours of homes in Chinook and more general county history at the courthouse on Ohio Street.

The Chinook Senior Center is hosting a vintage fashion show at 2 p. m. Saturday.

Line up for the second parade of the festival begins at 3:45 p. m., in front of Meadowlark School on New York Street.

The parade will then make its way downtown around 4:30 p. m., with a barbecue following in the appropriately named Centennial Park, at 2nd and Indiana streets.

Drawing people's attention to the Chinook High School Auditorium before the Wisch show will be the Sugarbeeter's volleyball game against Sunburst.

See pages B2 and B3 for the full schedule of events.