Car show on Friday - total fun! Parade Saturday morning -…read moregood time for all! Two stages with local bands - listen and dance in public woot woot!! Food, crafts, and pony rides - what more could you want? Parking is tough so prepare to walk

I came here on Sunday. This was my first time in eagle river and at Bear Paw Festival. I thought…read morethis was an awesome event! The parking was free, but it took a while to find parking since there was so many people there. Admission was free as well! There were loads of food booths and there were all amazing. I was able to try the waffle, sweet fried pies, taste of Germany, and mac and cheese. + Waffles and Whatnot - Fruity Delight - Lightly sweetened crispy waffle and fruit toppings. Absolutely delicious! + Taste of Germany - Pork Schnitzel - Amazingly delicious! Fried, but not too oily. Breaded to perfection. Yum! + Mac and Cheese - Gourmet Mac - Phenomenal dish! Topped with reindeer sausage and Lay's original chips. + Sweet Fried Pies - Strawberry Pie - The crust was flakey and just the was i liked it. The strawberry filling was a little tart, but still delicious. Overall: I thought this was an amazing fair and would definitely come back next year!

I wouldn't say it's a festival It's Greek food Greek dinner…read morewith live music Treated as a once, your opportunity to have some great Greek food and live Greek music Or just get your food to go Great music. Good food. Lots of deserts. Didn't get stuffed gape leaves. They were out 30 minutes into the first day ? Bummer. My favorite. The raffle used to be for a car now it's for 25% of the cash We were in and out in 45 minutes and saw everything that there was You should treat us as a place to go have a meal and listen to some music as opposed to a festival Think of it as Greek dinner with music while it lasts And you'll have a great time

I'll admit that I have a bias in favor of church and charity fundraisers... I totally want to give…read morethem 5 stars. So it pains me to be so negative. I honestly feel bad; but man, it is what it is. Not great. There was a big buildup and a lot of anticipation for me since I've been wanting to go to this festival for years because it falls on a busy weekend. We finally made it and... well... MEH. To call it a festival is a huge overstatement. There's no activities (religious, cultural, carnival or otherwise) other than one tiny TINY bouncy house and sporadic live Greek music and dancing. This event really is all about food. Which ok, I'm down with food. I love me some fucking Greek food. But the food was, in a word, MEH. I mean if you plan an event based around food, you'd expect it would kill. But nope. Dry lamb, dry pastisio, dry moussaka, dry pita. Tzaziki that had so much garlic even I, lover of garlic, was reeling. The dolmathes were 3 for a dollar and tasted like they were the kind out of a can. Good, but damn, I coulda bought the can at Sam's myself for a much better value. The souvlaki and gyro portions were really small and the line was a half hour long- totally not worth it. The desserts were just ok. And the prices on ALL the food, except the spanakopita, were way out of line. Again, since it's a fundraiser, I was expecting that, but I was also expecting the food to be memorable. But 60 bucks for a mediocre meal just pisses me off. Parking and traffic was a huge hassle, waiting in seperate lines for each food item was a hassle. I'd like two hours of my life back, please. Defintely won't go back. I'm super bummed.

Got a lot of really great souvenirs during my visit to the festival earlier this summer!…read more Due to COVID there weren't a ton of vendors when I visited in August, but I ended up purchasing items from 4-5 of them. There were so many interesting wares and the sellers were all lovely people, so it was a really pleasant way to spend an hour or two on a Saturday morning. I bought a few carved wooden mushrooms made from fallen trees (I kept one for myself and gave two as gifts- the recipients loved them!) An older couple was selling them along with carved wooden bowls. The craftsmanship was excellent and all of the products were really unique and beautiful. I also had a nice chat with the sellers, who gave my newly married husband and I some useful advice on long term relationships! They also gave us one of the carved mushrooms for free, as a wedding gift, which was unexpected and so wonderfully kind. I just wish they were online so I could buy more!! Other great items we found / purchased: - Native made jewelry from a woman who handpicks all the pieces herself. Some really fantastic pieces at great prices! - Containers of tea from a woman who makes the mixes herself using chagga mushrooms she finds locally and items from her garden. - Christmas ornaments made from clay and carved by an Alaskan artisan (some have sled dogs, seals, etc) There were also vendors selling food, popcorn, fur, wood signs, and a few other things. I wish I got to see it during a normal season, but even during COVID I thought it was great! Would love to go back if I ever find myself in Anchorage again!

This market has thinned out a lot since my visit 13 years ago. Today when we went (a Sunday in…read moreJune), there was one total strip of retail and food vendors combined. The rest of the lot was amusement park rides. There was a booth to dress up and take photos with Alaskan huskies, ulu knives, handmade candles, fur, photography, jewelry, and my favorite: Christmas ornaments made of Alaskan clay. I had to get one and start my travel Christmas tree ornament collection. Paid parking across the street and they were actively ticketing!

I'm just now coming out of the hangover from this event back in January…read more.. Seriously though, I did have a pretty horrific hangover. It was like a 9.8 on the HO scale. Moving right along: I used to be all about beer festivals back when I was what may be pejoratively termed a "beer bro". Now: I'm pretty jaded. I don't often go to them. Why would I wait in a stupid line for 5 minutes to get sample of a beer that every decent pub in town has on tap? (I'm looking at YOU: Oregon Brewer's Festival!) What I do go to are *unique* beer festivals. Show me some stuff I haven't had before, pour me some stuff I can't normally get in the state! GABBF has those. There were many vendors here that I was shocked to see. Freemont Brewing?! They don't even distribute to Oregon, let alone Alaska. But, here they were, pour suds to establish good will in the 49th state. Awesome. I'll definitely be back next year. I hope I'm semi-functional the day afterwards this time...

I'm only at 4 stars given the lack of food options. They weren't great and the limited vendors…read moreclosed down or ran out of food way too early. The $115/person for the VIP General Session was well worth it, despite not being able to use my food ticket in time. The VIP pass also comes with a t-shirt, pint glass, a growler, and 20 5 oz pours. That's 100 ounces, so you should leave feeling pretty good. The live music wasn't too bad and I'm guessing there were 40 or so beer vendors, so there was something here for everyone.

Such a fun two week event! The fur Randy website has a…read morelisting of all the events for the two week event. The weekends have more festivities going on then during the weekday. I also look forward to seeing the dog mushing come through town. Be mindful of road closures. Parking can be a challenge downtown, but always worth it! The fur auction is another fun event to check out and the carnival is fun for all ages.

I'm sad that I missed out on the running of the reindeer, but there were some other cool events to…read morecheck out. Downtown Anchorage was pretty dead the day after Iditarod, with no food carts in sight. The carnival was a little small and there weren't that many food options (they had the reindeer nuggets advertised, but said they weren't doing them that day). The fur auction was kind of cool to check out, but the best part was the snow sculpture competition (despite the warm temperatures) and the discounted horse drawn carriage rides. 2025 #29

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. Alaska is an awesome place to be this season…read more The Anchorage Christmas Events are definitely something you wouldn't want to miss. The celebration started of as early as November when the Christmas Arts & Crafts emporium was held. There were local bazaars featuring awesome goods from Alaskan artisit and crafters. There's also a festival Christmas train aboard the Alaska railroad. All sorts of Festivals like the North Pole Christmas in Ice, Candle Lighting Festival, Festival of Lights,Winter Arts Faire and many more are here for everyone to enjoy,whether it's the kids or the kids at heart.

We had fun, it took about 10 mins to walk through and see everything. There's lots of tables to…read moresit at when you get to the end. Lots of booths to do face painting and crazy hair, lots of food options too. Downside is it's all by tickets so you have to go see how many tickets you need for food first so you don't buy too many. There's tons of photo ops and they have characters walking around to take photos with. Everyone was super friendly and nice, made it even better. Usually I get photos done professionally by the people there but that is kinda spendy so I skipped it this year. I'd definitely go next year.

Great place for kids to trick or treat indoors specially if it's really cold outside. It was well…read moreorganized and had people doing parking/crossing street duties. My son had a lot of fun, so did my wife and I. Would definitely go again next Halloween!!!

I took an alcohol ink class here and really enjoyed myself. It is a small studio tucked away in…read moreSpenard. There was four of us so it was nice and intimate and a lot of interaction with our teacher unlike other painting companies in town. Alcohol ink was new to me, but I'm fairly pleased with my outcome! The host was vibrant, talkative and engaging. She let us play and test the waters with the inks before diving right in to create our masterpiece. She offers so many different classes; alcohol ink, wood burning, water color, acrylics, terrarium building, succulent classes. I really look forward to joining in on another class. The wood burning in particular sounds fun! Price range is $50-60 which is about average. It's totally worth it to me because of the smaller class size and intimate atmosphere about it. Did I mention it was a sip and paint?! Yep! She provides snacks and wine! I divulged in the Moscato :)

I am giving this company another review as the owner contacted me on Sept 4th and apologized…read moreprofusely about the Alaska State painting. She indicated that the instructor was new and she was hesitant to utilize her again after that event. She did give me a full reimbursement and extended the invitation to give the studio another try. I have not yet went back as I have recently returned from vacation, but I will. Honestly, just having the owner make contact and offer as well as comply with a full reimbursement speaks volumes. There could be a lot of other ways this was handled but I think the owner did it right.

This festival occurs once a year, usually at the end of July…read more The block near Snow City is shut down and everyone feasts and listens to live music. And...it's free! It's a great way to bump into everyone you know. Snow City is usually the main entity running the show, but other organizations often chip in. There are often lots of kid-friendly activities. Bummer for me: when I hear "BBQ" I think of smoked meats. The BBQ plates here are hamburgers. It's rough growing up in the south and then leaving.

Not a huge market this early in the growing season, but each stall was run by delightful people and…read morewe walked away with some of the best tasting tomatoes EVER. The music by the Traveling Fleas was also so much fun!

I'm enjoying adventurous Alaska & part of that is the essence of good eats especially with fruits &…read morevegetables. Although this is a small farmer's market, all you need are a few stalls with excellent stuff & you have a simple salad, a delightful dessert or a versatile vegetable fricassee. There's stalls with fine flowers, healthful honey, a parade of pickled items like garlic & other pickled delicacies, marvelous mushrooms, various vegetables & flavorful fruits. Most take credit card. I learned about pink as wells as lion's mane mushrooms. And I know that $2 for a bunch of orange beets with vitamin filled beet greens to boot is a showstopper. Don't even get me started on $3 giant leeks. I could eat just those with toast points. While it may not be for you, nobody gets more excited or fanatical about a festive farmer's market.