Be it the Deep South or the Far North they all have a familiar feel.  We checked out the Fairbanks “Midnight Sun Festival”.  There are booths that sell: food, political candidates and political causes, crafts, T-shirts and general stuff.  There is live entertainment.  In Fairbanks that means three performance stages with acts ranging from cute local kids showing off their dance routines to loud, marginal rock music and some too-funny Alaska folk music.  Don’t forget the antique cars and the seemingly universal kettle corn (they call it sugar corn here).

In the new-to-me corner:  three amusements in the kids “carnival corner”.

Salmon riding- like bull riding Alaska style I guess.  The kids climb onto a huge fiberglass fish and hang on for dear life while it spins and flips and reverses directions.

Wipe out for kids: they stand on a pedestal in a padded ring.  A center post with two arms, one high and one low spins and the kids try to jump or duck the arms to avoid being knocked off their pedestal.  I saw a lot of summersaults and face plants.

Bounceback: each kid is in their own lane.  They are velcroed into a jacket with a giant bungee cord attached to the back.  The object?  Walk, run, stretch or lunge their way forward as far as possible before the bungee snaps them back to the start of their lane.

They found my limit.  I didn’t pay $9 for an elephant ear.  We did try some pulled pork from the Alaska BBQ association booth.  Not quite as good as from the south, not as smoky; but still pretty yummy.