Montana
Montana Cultural Fair organizers prep for Thursday's event
Great Falls will host the annual Montana Cultural Fair at the Mansfield Convention Center on Thursday, August 8, 2024. The event begins at 5 p.m. and will run through 8 p.m.
The event, organized by the Rotary Club of Great Falls, will feature cultural exhibits and vendors, food tastings from a variety of cultures, and performances by musicians, dancers, and story-tellers.
What to expect:
- $10 admission includes food samples and performances
- Pepsi & water stands + beer garden
- Food trucks available for separate meal purchases
- 1,500+ participants celebrating cultural diversity
On Tuesday evening, the volunteers, performers, and vendors got to check out each other’s booths, learn about other cultures and taste-test the food.
Members of the cultural fair gathered to feast on various food samples that can be found at the upcoming event, such as empanadas from Venezuela, cardamom cookies from Finland, and Native American bullet soup and bannock to name a few.
Carla Alvarez has represented Venezuela at the fair for the past three years.
Alvarez enjoys teaching others about the friendly culture of Venezuelans: “We are so friendly, we enjoy helping other people. We forget the problems in Venezuela and show people our cultures. My favorite part of the multicultural fair is showing people parts of your culture, your food, and traditions.”
This year, the event will be located inside the Mansfield Center in Great Falls, to avoid weather conditions like heat and wind.
Additionally, each food vendor at the fair will be certified by the health department.
Eight cultures will be represented through food samples at the fair while twelve cultures will be represented through entertainment and education, from traditional Hawaiian dances to Scottish bagpipes.
Iain Morrison, a bagpiper with the Great Falls Pipe Band, says, “I love performing as a bagpiper, you start playing an instrument like that and people are going to be just drawn to the big amount of noise that comes up playing bagpipes. Just having that attention and being able to show off some of the skills, from a multicultural perspective, just being able to share that music with other people and have all the other things that come together, it’s pretty wonderful.”
The Montana Cultural Fair will be on Thursday, August 8th, at the Great Falls Civic Center (#2 Park Drive South) from 5pm to 8pm. For more information, click here.
MISSOULA, Mont. — The Clark Fork River has long been a defining feature of Missoula, shaping the city’s culture, economy and outdoor lifestyle.
The river is so closely tied to the area that it helped inspire the well-known book and film “A River Runs Through It.” But local conservation advocates say its importance goes far beyond scenery.
“Without the Clark Fork River, Missoula would just be another town,” said Lisa Ronald, Northern Rockies associate conservation director for American Rivers. “We wouldn’t be the River City. I think we’re known in Montana as Missoula the River City, and it’s really because of the Clark Fork River and its central role in business, in economics, in recreation, that really makes Missoula the town that it is.”
Carmen Murill, a field organizer with Wild Montana, said the river is deeply woven into daily life for people who live in Missoula.
“A lot of us would wonder what to do on a beautiful or a rainy summer day,” Murill said. “I mean, it’s really a lifeforce of town. And I think it’s pretty unique that Missoula, as a community is living and breathing on both sides of the river. It’s really like two downtowns but connected by the Clark Fork.”
Conservation groups say protecting the river begins with community involvement.
Advocates encourage residents and visitors to spend time outdoors, whether on a trail, in the woods or along the river, and to learn how they can become better stewards of the environment.
MISSOULA — Sam Forstag edged out Ryan Busse to secure the Democratic nomination in Montana’s 1st Congressional District.
Busse conceded the race to Forstag on Wednesday morning. Forstag had trailed behind Busse Tuesday evening, but he made up ground as the votes were counted into the early hours of Wednesday morning. The other two candidates in the race, Russl Cleveland and Matt Rains, are sitting at third and fourth, respectively.
Forstag leads in close race for Montana’s 1st Congressional District
Forstag spent eight years as a wildland firefighter, including four as a smokejumper, and he’s been vice president of the local National Federation of Federal Employees union. Last week, U.S. House of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, held a rally in Missoula to support Forstag’s campaign.
He told MTN on Tuesday that his campaign has been for the working class.
“We got a whole lot of people here that have been working their tail off to finally get some working-class representation in Washington,” Forstag noted. “So proud of everything we’ve done and so grateful.”
Forstag further noted he wants Montanans to be able to afford groceries, have universal free childcare and restore and expand Affordable Health Care Act subsidies.
“Hearing people’s stories and struggles and commonalities in the ways that we’re all fighting in the system that does not serve us so often, and the government serves corporations and the richest people in this country more than working people. It has been frustrating and saddening, but it has also inspired so much hope in me, like the fixes we can actually make,” he told MTN.
The 1st Congressional District covers much of western Montana, including Kalispell, Missoula, Butte and Bozeman. It is currently held by Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Montana, who chose not to seek reelection.
By securing the nomination, Forstag is slated tol face off against Libertarian candidate Nick Sheedy and Republican candidate Aaron Flint in November.
Brian Miller won the Democratic primary Tuesday for the U.S. House seat in Montana’s eastern district.
The Associated Press called the race for Miller, an attorney in Helena, who fended off a challenge from state Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, a longtime legislator from Box Elder, and Sam Lux, a farrier from Great Falls.
In the Republican and rural eastern district, any Democrat will be an underdog, and Miller will face off against incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Troy Downing, who was unopposed Tuesday.
Libertarian Patrick McCracken is also running.
In the primary, Miller took 58% of the vote. Lux took 27% and Windy Boy took 16%, according to the Montana Secretary of State’s website.
In April, Windy Boy paused his campaign amid “serious sexual abuse” allegations raised by the Montana Democratic Party — but Windy Boy restarted his campaign and later called the allegations “political attacks.”
Miller is representing the victim of the alleged abuse and her mother, although he said he didn’t take on the role until after Windy Boy initially suspended his campaign.
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