Polson Festival Days, car show starts this Friday
POLSON — The biggest activity weekend of the year in Polson is coming up this weekend as Polson Festival Days take place Aug. 11-12.
The popular Cruisen by the Bay car show has adopted a Beach Party theme for this summer. The fifth annual event will be all both days in downtown Polson. Car show registration is Friday, Aug. 11, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Riverside Park and on Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon.
As in previous years the free kickoff concert will feature the Bop-a-Dips and their rock and roll tunes on the beach at Riverside Park from 7 to 10:30 p.m., Friday.
Last year some 526 cars were displayed. This year more than 800 cars are expected to be parked along Main Street from Highway 93 to Seventh Ave. and beyond. Show and shine time is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday. To be judged cars must be in place no later than 10 a.m., Saturday. Cash and awards will total more than $5,000.
There will be vendors with items of interest to old car collectors and restorers.
Special national television coverage will be provided by the Speed Channel and will feature Dennis Gage, who is featured on "My Classic Car" program. An emergency medical service station will be set up in the county parking lot at the corner of Main and Fourth Ave.
Local charitable programs will share in funds raised from the event.
The Lions Club will serve breakfast starting at 7 a.m. on Saturday in the Glacier Bank Drive-In area.
The car show winds up Sunday with a free breakfast — served by Polson Lions Club members — for car owners at 8 a.m. in Riverside Park. The public may also attend the breakfast at a nominal fee. After breakfast, the car show participants will pack up and head for their homes.
The other Festival Days activities tentatively planned for Sunday have been canceled.
RSVP plans kids' carnival
RSVP along with other Lake County non-profit agencies are hosting the Children's Carnival. The Libraries Bookmobile will have balloon darts and beanbag catapult, Miracle of America Museum will be taking photos, Pablo Christian Church will have Lego car races, DOVES a bean bag toss, and Lake County WIC program will have a toddler play area. CASA will do tattoos for everyone and SAFE Harbor will have a great waterslide.
In addition the Foster Grandparent program will be back with the milk bottle game and its great stuffed animal prizes. The Grandparents are also cooking up the hot dogs. RSVP will have all new inflatable bouncers, new fun games and Polson Festival Days T-shirt sales.
New this year is The Trampoline Thing at Riverside Park Friday, Aug. 11, and Saturday, Aug. 12. Carnival hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
On Saturday, Aug. 12, the 35th annual Sandpiper Gallery's Outdoor Art Show will be held on the courthouse lawn, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Jan and Dean with "My Little Deuce Coupe" will be heard in concert at the Polson Fairgrounds from 7 to 10 p.m. on Saturday. Admission is $20 per person in advance, $25 at the gate. Advance tickets are available at the Polson Chamber of Commerce and from several other local business places.
Outdoor Art Festival
In 1971, Billings artist Leo Olson came to Polson to install the steel sculptures at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Polson. He and local artist Betty Hudson cooked up a plan to host the Montana Institute of the Arts Festival in the beautiful Polson area. There were over 200 entries in that first Festival, and such a burst of enthusiasm for fostering the arts that an art gallery and an annual festival were born, making Polson a significant and prestigious art nucleus in the heart of the Mission Valley.
Continuing that successful annual tradition, the Sandpiper Outdoor Art Festival occurs on the Polson Courthouse lawn Saturday, Aug. 12, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. One fine and noted artist featured this year is bronze sculptor C.A. Grende, whose 10-ft. high image of Sacajawea and her baby Pomp will be on exhibit, one of the sculptures in her "Following the Trail of Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery" series.
Grende has been commissioned for sculptures of Albert Schweitzer, Will Rogers, and other historical figures for museums and private collectors. Browsers will find a variety of offerings at the juried Fine Arts Festival, from fine art paintings in all media, hand-tooled leather, eclectic jewelry, handcarved birdhouses, pottery, candles and sculptures in silver and bronze. In addition to the many returning artists, there will be new artists displaying in this popular juried event.
The Art Festival is the main fundraising event for the Sandpiper Fine Arts Non-Profit Corporation, whose proceeds fund yearly scholarships for talented Lake County students pursuing formal art studies at the university level. A new fundraising feature this year at the Festival is a raffle drawing for a hand-carved and painted wooden duck decoy, by award-winning artist Andrew Speer, for one dollar a chance. Speer's similar carvings sell for $600 to $1,000.