The key ingredient to Alyeska Resort’s popular summer festival is rapidly blooming throughout the valley just in time for the fifth annual Alyeska Blueberry Festival, scheduled for August 13 and 14.
The family-friendly outdoors two-day festival will run from 12pm until 6pm each day. Admission to the festival is free.
The festival will feature a variety of arts, crafts and food booths – from hand-crafted jewelry and watercolor prints to blueberry-themed desserts and jam concoctions. Each day of the festival there will be local musicians on the main stage, as well as a beer and wine garden. The live music line-up includes Third Wheel Project, Melissa Beck, Full Tilt, Sarahndipity, Sourdough Biscuits, High Lonesome Sound and Paul Cataldo.
Dedicated for kids of all ages, many of the featured activities at the festival are geared for hands-on fun and playing with Alaska’s favorite berry. There will be opportunities for children to decorate their own berry-picking bags and foray for berries in the courtyard area with Alyeska Resort’s mascot, Mogul Moose.
Chair 7 will run at specific times throughout the weekend free of charge to carry guests up Blueberry Hill and allow pickers to access the prime blueberry patches in the area. The active Blueberry Stomp Fun Run, a short race up Blueberry Hill, is the perfect complement to all the sugary treats. The popular pie-eating contest has been expanded to include both kids and adults competing on the main stage for great prizes.
Throughout the festival, find artsy activities such as face painting, or try out fly-casting with a local fishing guide. A disc golf tournament on the resort’s nine-hole disc golf course will cap off the day at 6pm.
The Resort is featuring its own culinary talents under the Food & Wine Tent with a series of demonstrations with a blueberry focus.
The Hotel Alyeska is offering special Blueberry Festival packages starting at $259 per night. Packages include one-night’s accommodation, breakfast and a scenic tram ride for two adults. Packages can be booked by calling hotel reservations at 907-754-2111 or online at www.alyeskaresort.com
For more information about top events in Alaska take a look at the Top Events USA selection of the annual main festivals and events in Alaska.