Talent show drawing few contestants

The Great Northern Fair Board is having trouble finding contestants for a talent show planned for this year's fair, and organizers say that if more acts are not found by June 10, that event may have to be canceled.

The fair's free night show has drawn disappointing audiences in recent years, and the fair board decided to replace it with a talent show, which is scheduled to make its debut at the 2004 Great Northern Fair.

"We're trying to do a talent show because we were hiring a couple bands for the free show and weren't getting much of a crowd, so we decided to do something different," said fair manager Tim Solomon.

Hiring bands that played to empty seats was unfair to the performers and not the best use of the fair's limited budget, said fair board member Julie Strauser.

"We thought maybe with some local talent, we would get a better turnout - friends and family hoping to see them win the contest," Strauser said.

But despite a $1,000 top prize and extensive advertising about the contest, the fair board has heard little from interested performers, as the show's June 10 registration deadline approaches.

"We've had a few inquiries, but not as many as we would like," Solomon said. "The deadline hasn't hit yet, so we're hoping to have some more."

Strauser encouraged people with suggestions about possible performers to contact fair board members.

"There's a lot of people on the board who would love to get suggestions from the public," she said. "And I know there are a lot of talented people in Havre and on the Hi-Line. If people have things they would like to see, they need to let the board members know."

If enough contestants are found, the talent show will be held Aug. 11, the opening night of the fair. A team of judges will name the top three performers, who will take home prize money of $1,000, $500 and $250, respectively.

Other events planned for the 2004 Great Northern Fair will remain largely the same as in previous years.

The fair board has voted to continue hosting professional rodeo. Board members had previously discussed whether the rodeo should continue to be a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association-sanctioned event. Some board members thought that having an amateur rodeo would save the fair board money, while others said the extra cost was worth it.

"I think if we went back to an amateur rodeo, you would really see a difference and I think it would hurt us," Strauser said. "And it's not the contestants, because a lot of them are the same. It's the quality of the stock, and the show in general. We have the PRCA Stock Contractor of the Year coming to our rodeo, and he puts on a show."

The Great Northern Fair Board has hired PRCA stock contractor Ike Sankey for the 2004 fair.

The seating accommodations for the demolition derby and the rodeo will remain the same as last year, with people sitting in bleachers purchased to replace the former grandstand. The fair board scrambled to have the bleachers in place for last year's fair after the grandstand was torn down in early 2003 at an engineer's recommendation. Fair board members were concerned that the bleachers - which have a seating capacity of about 600 fewer people than the grandstand - would not be able to accommodate some events. That has proven not to be the case, Solomon said.

"The ones that were put in place last year are the ones we'll use this year. For right now, those are our bleachers. They seem to be sufficient for housing the numbers we're getting right now," he said.

The local Pepsi and Coca-Cola distributors will both have booths at this year's fair, as they have in past. Fair board members considered seeking bids from the two companies for exclusive rights to the 2004 fair, but later scrapped the idea, Solomon said.

The fair will be held from Aug. 11-15 at the Hill County Fairgrounds.