An event-packed 2022 Great Northern

Editor’s note: Information in these stories appeared in stories a special section in Monday’s Havre Daily News

2022’s Great Northern Fair is set to be much larger than previous years, with far more events, rides and entertainment, the fairgrounds manager said.

“Bigger, badder, better,” Great Northern Fairgrounds Manager Frank English said.

English said he and the Great Northern Fair Board have been working hard to get this year’s fair set up, and they’re set to nearly double the amount of events planned.

Parking on the fairgrounds parking lot is is $5 per day between 1 and 9 p.m., and $20 for the week.

Among the biggest additions to this year’s fair, English said, is the tractor pull Saturday, the addition of which means there will be one major event going on in the lower arena every evening the fair is going on.

Wednesday, July 13, at 3 p.m. will be the Junior Rodeo, with the Great Northern Ram Rodeo Thursday, July 14 and 15.

The Junior Rodeo will host some of the best young riders from the area, competing in events such as sheep riding, flag racing, barrels, steer riding, chute dogging, pole bending and tie down roping. 

Great Northern RAM Rodeos on July 14 and 15 will feature professional riders competing in events such as bull riding, barrel racing, breakaway roping, saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling, team roping and tie down roping.

The new tractor pull is set to run Saturday, July 16, starting at 2 p.m. with local entries and semis, with the night show beginning at 7 p.m.

Finally, Sunday, July 17, at 4 p.m. will be the Havre Jaycees Demolition Derby and Bump ’N’ Run.

English said there will be plenty of free entertainment also available including a bunch of new musical acts like Ja’net Eastman Wednesday, Thursday and Friday as well as Larry Myer those same days.

Allegedly Red will play Thursday, with Shakedown Country Friday, Blue Tattoo Saturday and Neen Ridge Sunday.

“The music is ridiculous this year. We have some amazing stuff,” English said.

He said he’s also very excited for hypnotist and magician Michael Mezmer’s DangerMagik Magic Phenomena and TranceNosis Comedy Hypnosis Thursday, Friday and Saturday, an act he said was honored at the Rocky Mountain Association of Fairs recently.

English said there will also be Randy’s Freckle Farms Zoo, open every day of the fair, as well as the National Guard Climbing Wall.

He said he’s also really excited for some of the fair’s paid entertainment, open every day of the fair, like the bounce houses, stunt jump, mechanical bull and Gelly Ball, the last of which he said is a total blast to play.

English also said they’re going to have a record-setting number of rides this year, provided by Midway West Amusements.

He said more food will be available than last year, as well as more vendors in general.

He said a number of local institutions from Friends of Beaver Creek Park to Fish, Wildlife and Parks to the Great Plains Veterans Service Center will also have booths.

While English said he was excited about all the new stuff coming to the fair, there would be one notable absence from last year, the powwow, which was a big hit last year.

Despite that absence, he said, he’s hoping to make this the biggest and best fair it can possibly be, and he’s hoping everyone has a really good time.

In preparation for this year’s fair, he said, he and his crew have been working on some side projects to improve the grounds for the event.

He said they’ve improved the food court and repainted flagpoles and are working on getting the grounds’ caboose repainted as well.

English said they’ve also replaced a lot of water lines and hydrants, as well as made general upgrades to the fairgrounds’ water systems which will reduce leaks, as well as freezing, and allow fire trucks to fill up on the grounds much faster.

4-H’s fair schedule

In addition to the myriad events the Great Northern Fair itself is setting up for this year’s Great Northern Fair, Montana State University Hill County Extension is gearing up for a packed schedule of their own, with their usual crop of 4-H animal shows, project displays and livestock sale.

Extension Agent Colleen Pegar said that today, before the fair, they will be holding their interview day for all indoor projects at the 4-H Chuckwagon, where students will show off their projects and be judged. Projects range in subject from sewing to livestock.

Throughout the fair beginning July 13, 4-H will also be holding a number of animal shows with 4-H member youths presenting horses, cattle and smaller animals to be judged as well, she said.

These are the events she’s personally most excited for, as it was what she grew up doing.

“I love to see those kids build their confidence in the show ring and get those blue and purple ribbons,” she said.

Pegar said this year’s Small Animal Show saw an unusually high number of entires compared to pervious years so that one may be particularly interesting.

“Our Small Animal Show is going to be pretty large,” she said.

She said the biggest event of the fair remains the Livestock Sale

Pegar also said they’re sending out buyer application forms for the sale to all previous buyers in past years, and if anyone else wants one they can let the Hill County Extension Office know.

She said they can also show up on sale day and get buyer registration numbers then.

She said if anyone has questions about the events, or is interested in 4-H in general they can give the Extension office a call and they’d be happy to help.

Multiple events run from Wednesday, July 13, to Sunday, July 17.

Wednesday in the outside arena at 9:30 a.m. will be the Horse Show with the 4-H Chuckwagon opening from 3 to 9 p.m. for exhibit viewing and concessions.

Thursday will see the Market Animal Weigh-In from 7 to 9:30 a.m., a 4-H Livestock Superintendents meeting at 6 p.m., followed by a 4-H Livestock Exhibitors meeting at the Bigger Better Barn at 6:30 p.m., them 7 p.m. at the Bigger Better Barn will be a Beef, Goat, Sheep and Swine Exhibitors meeting.

The Beef Show at the Bigger Better Barn will begin a 9 a.m. Friday followed by the Dog Show at 1:30 p.m., and the Small Animal Show at 3:30 p.m.

Saturday will feature the Swine Show at the Bigger Better Barn at 8 a.m., the Sheep and Goat Show at 1 p.m., and the 4-H Round Robin Competition will follow.

The 4-H Appreciation Breakfast at the Chuckwagon, sponsored by CHS Big Sky, will be held Sunday from 8 to 9:30 a.m. and pre-sale announcements and buyer registration at the Bigger Better Barn at 12:45 p.m. with the Livestock Market Sale at 1 p.m.

Thursday through Saturday Bigger Better Barn Concessions will be open from 7 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and the Bigger Better Barn and Beef Barn itself will be open until 9:30 p.m. The Chuckwagon will be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Sunday, Bigger Better Barn Concessions will open at 10 a.m. and close at 3:30 p.m. the 4-H Chuckwagon will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Fair preparation after board shakeup

As for English’s side of things, he said the increase in events certainly has made the preparation work for the fair more intense and though he’s certainly not alone in setting everything up, it has been a pretty crazy few weeks and months.

English said the Great Northern Fair Board has been great to work with this past year or so, having been consistently on top of things and using their knowledge to support him when he needs it.

“The board has been friggin fantastic,” he said.

The current incarnation of the Great Northern Fair Board, made up of Michelle Burchard, Bob Kaul, Ken Erickson, Kaleb Fisher and Casey Tilleman is fairly new, the board having gone through a significant shake up after last year’s fair and in the wake of a controversy surrounding the conduct of one of its members, Bob Sivertsen, who was removed from the board by the Hill County Commission shortly after the fair.

This was followed by the resignation of then-Chair Josh Heitzenroder, and eventually the board was left with only two remaining members, Kaul and Burchard, who held meetings for months but couldn’t vote on anything without a quorum, which they would eventually get after some appointments were made to the board by the commission.

After last year’s fair tensions between English and the board boiled over into an argument with many questioning English’s competence and eventually caused English to walk out of the meeting frustrated by his treatment by the board.

This year, tensions between English and the board appear to have eased, which English said has been very helpful.