Wrangell’s Tent City Days is still a couple of months away, but organizers need volunteers to step up with event ideas so they can start putting together a schedule.
The tentative dates are Oct. 14-17.
Though the event, which started about 40 years ago, was created to celebrate the town’s gold rush history and provide a late-winter break from darkness and doldrums in February, organizers recently moved it to October and now are adding a different angle to the history lesson.
“I would like to make it more of a learning time,” said Jillian Privett, who is organizing Tent City Days. It will coincide this year with Alaska Day, which commemorates the lowering of the Russian flag and the raising of the U.S. flag in Sitka in 1867, as the U.S. took over the territory. Alaska Day is a legal holiday in the state on Oct. 18.
Privett said she also would like to see Tent City Days commemorate and acknowledge that while miners may have endured hardship during the Cassiar and Klondike gold rushes more than 120 years ago, the Indigenous people of the area managed through hard times, too.
“The Tlingit people had it figured out,” she said.
Volunteers are needed not only to run the events, but to come up with ideas and fundraise, Privett said. “There is no bank account.”
Community groups may want to sponsor events to raise money for their cause, she said.
“We’re looking for volunteers to chair games and volunteers to come up with the games,” said Brittani Robbins, chamber of commerce executive director, who is helping Privett with the organizing work.
The chamber was the original sponsor of Tent City Days, but it dropped the event and then the festival went dormant for a number of years until volunteer organizers brought it back to life, Privett recalled.
“Last year, we did have somewhat of a Tent City Days” in October, amid the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, she said. “We were able to pull off some virtual events,” but there were no food sales and no “jail” for rounding up people who needed to post bail to get out — all in the name of fundraising.
In addition to bringing back the jail, food and street games, organizers this year would like to see someone put on a dance with live music. “Sort of like a mini Fourth of July,” Privett said.
Maybe even a group would want to bring back the bed races down Front Street that were popular in the original Tent City Days.
To volunteer, or for more information, contact Privett at 907-305-1095, email tentcitydays907@gmail.com, or post on the Tent City Facebook page.
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