Great Northern Fair Viking event and Halloween event planned for fairgrounds

At the monthly meeting of the Great Northern Fair Board Tuesday night, Great Northern Fairgrounds manager Frank English announced plans to stage events in September and October, including a Halloween event featuring a movie on a blow-up screen, offering the community a safe place to trick or treat.

For September, English said after the meeting there would be an event featuring vikings, meatballs on a stick, and scones which were not available during the Great Northern Fair this year.

The event is set for Saturday, Sept. 4 at the fairgrounds. It will also feature a rodeo, farmer’s market, a car and bike show and live music.

“Got live music coming, Shovels and Shotguns. Old Station Brewing (Co.) is gonna do the stage and lights and stuff. T.J. Overcast, Derrek Hann and Mandi and Jade Nystrom are all gonna be playing, it looks like so far,” English said in an interview Tuesday. “Trying to get a rodeo put together. But with all the other rodeo events going on right now. I don’t really have one. But I’ve got several people that are helping me out and we’re going to try to get some sort of a little jackpot or round-robin type of rodeo going on.”

Simultaneously, during all of these festivities, English said, the community center at the fairgrounds will host an “all class reunion” Sept. 4, which is in place of the Havre Public Schools Education Foundation’s “Fossil Festival,” which honors long-term graduates.

The Fossil Festival is typically held every five years but could not be held last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The foundation’s executive director Amanda Meyer said an exact time for the local meet-up is still to be determined.

“As soon as the fairgrounds releases their schedule of events, I’ll probably suggest a time that everyone can meet up at the community center. And if they want to purchase food or drinks in the venues, then they can bring that back to the community center. And everyone can hang out and mingle for a little while,” Meyer said.

English said during the board meeting the trick or treat aspect of the event would be done utilizing RVs, in a similar fashion to “trunk or treating,” again emphasizing having a safe place for trick or treaters.

English said the movie would be staged in the area of the midway. He is in the process of obtaining a projector.

The next meeting of the Great Northern Fair Board will be Tuesday, Sept. 21 at 5:30 p.m. at the Great Northern Fairgrounds Community Center.