Commercial Building filling for Great Northern Fair

After a year without it, this year’s Great Northern Fair may see a full, or nearly full, Commercial Building in 2021.

Great Northern Fairgrounds Manager Frank English said the building will have booths run by local recycling outfits, businesses like State Farm and Beans and Things, as well as independent vendors selling candy, jewelry, stitching and embroidery, cutlery, and will feature a booth by Bullhook Community Health Center, which will be giving out COVID-19 shots.

English said there will also be a booth selling gourmet fried bread, and the powwow Northern Winz Hotel & Casino is putting on at the fair will also have a number of booths there, including ones for beadwork and other Native American Art.

He said a food booth featuring Navajo cuisine will be at the powwow.

He said Hill County Republicans will also have spot in the building but he has yet to hear back from Hill County Democrats.

He also said he’s trying to get the Havre Eagles Club set up in the building to run bingo games.

English said the building has a handful of spots still open, but he has a list of other possible organizations that have expressed and interest in using space that he’s reticent to talk about because they haven’t been nailed down as certain just yet.

He said if the building is full, he can deal with a little bit of overflow and find space just outside the building as well.

Two weeks ago, English put out a call for more organizations to use the building at this year’s fair, saying he wanted to get back to what it was like in decades past.

“Twenty years ago you walked around here and it was stuffed,” he said. “Last time there were like five.”

By all accounts that goal may just be met in time for the 2021 fair.

“I’m ecstatic about everything up here,” he said.

English also talked about some of the other features at this year’s fair, including a human hamster-ball pool, as well as other features that aren’t 100 percent confirmed yet.

“I’m just crossing t’s and dotting i’s,” he said.

He said a food booth featuring Navajo cuisine will be at the powwow.

He also said the fair will have a new carnival with more rides including a Big Wheel, a Zipper, a Gravitron and more for adults and families alike.

“This is gonna be a fair that you don’t want to miss,” English said.

Parking for the fair will be $5 per day, or $20 for a pass to all five days, and won’t be charged before 1 p.m. each day.