Girdwood Forest Fair — Local services in Alaska

Headed in for my first forest fair in years, super excited to see all the new vendors, meet cool people and see what the bier garden is all about.

Unfortunately the have massively outgrown their space and are in need of a new location. (Or frankly, less vendors)

The bier garden -requires- you to purchase a $7 stainless steel cup, plus the $6 beer to drink. They then expect you to -reuse- this cup for any further drinks, which is a serious health code violation.

There are signs up and down the alyeska highway stating "no politics, no religion, and no dogs." The latter they could promise, but there was a man standing in the middle of the fair holding an umbrella about "fearing the lord" and trying to pass out pamphlets about his religion. I dont care what kind of court case was had to let him in, but security had no problem with him prancing around. Dont think ill be going back anytime soon. Not a summer day I enjoyed. The magic of the fair is lost, and is just a consumer market....

It's okay. Went on the last day after 3 pm. Bought some things from vendors I thought was worth it. Vendors were ok. S lot of repeition of stuff. Had a decent food selection even though they advertise exotic food. The food is NOT exotic at all but I can appreciate what was offered. The downside is the parking situation getting in and getting out. The egress is terrible and the free parking area that they tell you to park in, where one of the shuttles can pick up, is TERRIBLE. If you try to get out it will, and I kid you not, take you at least 2 hours to get out. Because there's no traffic control. Girwood seems to be trash when it comes to hosting events. It's okay when there's an event in May or late August, but it's the same thing every year for the Forest fair as it grows. It was worse this year. Not worth...

We were happy being in Alaska at the time of the Forest Fair in Girdwood Alaska. This event gets bigger every year. We went on a Fri and we were amazed at how busy it was. We did find parking spot only about a half mile away and walked down. There was a lot of great vendors selling their wares. The food trucks were plentiful. I got the Spinach bread which is fantastic. There was plenty of music and entertainment. This event has a great vib to it. They do have parking up at the ski lodge and shuttle busses to bring you down. Don't miss this gem when in Alaska in early July. Will we go back? If I'm up...