From performers to parades, Fourth of July weekend on The Rock will be booming with activities.
And the question everybody is asking: Will the weather corporate? Sort of.
The National Weather Service is forecasting a sunny Fourth of July with a high of 62 degrees, but the days leading up to the holiday are a different story. Rain and wind — 20 to 25 mph with gusts as high as 30 mph — are forecast for Kodiak on Friday and Saturday, with precipitation giving way to the sun by Sunday evening.
The holiday weekend begins with a musical extravaganza at the Kodiak Fairgrounds. Too Slim and the Taildraggers headline Friday and Saturday concerts, while Sunday Texas Hill — a band featuring former contestants on “The Voice” and “American Idol” — takes the stage.
TOO SLIM AND THE TAILDRAGGERS
The Kodiak Arts Council’s summer concert series begins with two performances from Too Slim and the Taildraggers.
The performances start at 6:30 p.m. both nights with the show beginning with Kodiak favorites Good Lieutenants and Jerry Miller and Friends featuring Little Ronnie.
“We are pretty excited, especially since the pandemic has died down a little bit. This is pretty big for us,” said Hazel Delos Santos, the performing arts program manager for Kodiak Arts Council.
Too Slim and the Taildraggers is a blues/rock band led by guitarist and vocalist Tim Langford. The accomplished musician has received lifetime achievement and hall of fame awards from three Northwest blues societies and more than 40 regional and national music awards. The band’s 2020 release, “The Remedy,” debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Top Blues Album chart.
Langford’s musical influences include Lightnin’ Hopkins, Freddy King, Duane Alliman and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
“When I was growing up, I associated music with a band or a musician and not with a particular genre of music,” he said in a 2016 article on bluesblastmagazine.com.
Langford started Too Slim and Taildraggers in 1986 in Spokane, Washington. This is their only show in Alaska.
Food trucks Dingy, Lani’s Filipino BBQ and Dough Buoys and a beer garden with cider from Double Shovel will be at the Fairgrounds. In addition, a free shuttle bus will begin at 6 p.m. and run between the Harbormaster building and the Fairgrounds. The bus will leave downtown at 6 p.m., 7 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Tickets are $22 per person and are available at www.kodiakarts.org or at the gate. Youth ages 12 and under are $10 and children 2 and under are free.
TEXAS HILL
Texas Hill caps off its three-city Alaska tour on Sunday at the Kodiak Fairgrounds. The concert — presented by Erickson Unlimited, The Kodiak Lions Club and KVOK — begins at 6 p.m. with James Logan Cole with guest Jerred Williams, followed by Ellamy Tiller and the Twang.
Craig Wayne Boyd, Adam Wakefield and Casey James make up the country band. Boyd won season 7 of “The Voice,” Wakefield was runner-up of season 10 of “The Voice” and James was the third-place finisher on the ninth season of “American Idol.”
The trio formed in 2020 but has been creating music together since 2019.
“The one thing that was good about those shows is that it brought exposure to all of us and where we were at in life,” Boyd said in an interview on tasteofcountry.com.
Tickets are $35 and are available at kvok.com or the radio station on Mill Bay Road. Children 5 and under are free. Gates open at 5 p.m.
PARADES
A pair of parades highlight the Fourth of July.
The American Legion parade begins in downtown Kodiak at 11 a.m., while the Chiniak Fourth of July Celebration Parade starts at Roads End restaurant at 2 p.m.
Parade organizer Moe Butler said this is the 23rd installment of the Chiniak Parade that was started by Coast Guard Captain John Miller, who has since died.
“One day we were sitting around a fire, and he said, ‘We should have a parade,”’ Butler said. “We’ve got to do it now to honor him. It’s a Chiniak thing. The whole neighborhood gets into it, and it is quite fun.”
Butler encourages people from town to watch the parade that covers over a mile of road and ends at Silver Beach.
Butler said the parade features tractors, four-wheelers, ATVs, vintage cars and horses.
COMMUNITY RUN
Kodiak’s annual Fourth of July 5K/10K Run/Walk is 9:30 a.m. Monday. The race starts and finishes outside the National Guard Armory at 125 Powell Street. Registration for the race begins at 8:30 a.m. at the Kodiak Community Swimming Pool.
The Fourth of July run started in 1980, with the race beginning at the entrance to the Coast Guard base and ending in downtown Kodiak. The City of Kodiak Parks and Recreation Department changed the course in 2021.
The new 10K course has runners taking Rezanof Drive to Glow Skin Care and returning to town via Mill Bay Road. The 5K course is similar, with the turnaround point being Benny Benson Drive.
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