Fair delivers the fun every year

This week's Northwest Montana Fair promises a "Wild Ride" for fairgoers.

"Wild Ride" is the theme for the fair, one of the Flathead Valley's biggest annual events.

The Flathead County Fairgrounds in Kalispell will be the place to be to enjoy that ride.

This year's theme embraces the excitement of the fair. Wild rides abound, whether it's rodeo cowboys trying to hold onto their bucking broncs or kids taking a spin on the popular "Kamikaze" ride at the carnival. The Indian relay races on Saturday promise plenty of wild rides, too. And toddlers crawling onto a merry-go-round for the first time also are taking their first wild rides.

That's just part of the fair fun. From the always-popular market stock sale on Saturday to the buildings and barns full of people's pet projects - from kitchen creations to carefully raised livestock - there is literally something for everyone at the fairgrounds.

During a summer when the heat has been oppressive and smoke plumes fill the skies every day, the fair offers a good old-fashioned way to have some fun.

The fair promises to deliver that fun just as it has for more than 100 years.

See you at the fair!

Congratulations to Joe Legate and Flathead Valley Community College on the new theater, and thanks to the citizens of Flathead County for making it happen.

Legate has been the head of the drama department since 1991, and he arrived at a time when it was unclear if there really was a drama department or not.

Those questions have long since been answered, and Legate revived an FVCC tradition that dated back to the school's early days in downtown Kalispell and made live theater a cornerstone of the college community.

The only thing missing was a real theater. For the last 14 years, the department has had to put on its plays, musicals and other shows in a large classroom space with retractable walls. That meant the stage and lights needed to be knocked down every night, so that students could attend classes in the space during the day.

It was an unworkable arrangement that Legate somehow made work. But starting this month, the college has a brand-new 200-seat theater with storage space, dressing rooms and the usual assortment of aspirations and dreams.

That was made possible by local citizens voting to increase their own taxes a few dollars a month in order to expand and improve Flathead Valley Community College.

We encourage everyone to take time to see a show at this new facility in the coming months so you can see part of where your money has gone. It is money well spent.

The college presents the musical comedy "Bye Bye Birdie" this weekend and next weekend. Call 756-3814 for more information.