A Sunny Sultan Shindig

After 34 years, volunteer organizers of the Sultan Shindig have planning of the annual three-day community event down to a science.

Vendors are placed, entertainment is booked, and the carnival is set up by the time 3 p.m. hits on Friday in downtown. The core features that highlight the city’s history are coordinated each year, and some elements are added and tweaked to keep things fresh.

“We’re always wanting to try something new, because when you get stagnant is when you get old, and people stop coming,” said Marianne Naslund, one of the Shindig’s main organizers.

The Sultan city councilmember, who was also this year’s Shindig Parade grand marshal, has helped take care of logistics for almost 20 years; she was first “sucked in” by Sky Valley Visitors Center president Debbie Copple —another long-time Shindig coordinator. Naslund said the past two decades “have turned into a huge blur.”

Naslund was excited for the multiple first-time vendors this year, including Fisher Scones, which attendees of the Evergreen State Fair would recognize. Naslund said the company was looking to expand its portfolio, and contacted Shindig planners to see if there was space at the street fair.

Copple said that section of the grounds was filled to capacity this year.

Birdhouse builder Frank Arnold and his wife, Kimberly, were among the newcomers this year. The Gold Bar-based craftsman said he wanted to “venture out here to see what it’s like” to promote his goods at the venue. Events like Shindig are essential for the small business, and the primary avenue he uses to sell his products.

“None of this existed” in the beginning, Copple said, waving at the carnival rides and rows of temporary tents. When it first started, there was one food option: a hotdog stand run by the organizers, she said.

Food trucks and booths with traditional carnival cuisine were scattered throughout the route over the weekend.

Naslund said live music has always been offered, with local artists in the lineup. As the event has grown, corporate sponsors have signed on and bigger names are now also affordable, she said.

This year Rush tribute band Phantom Fears and Beatles tribute band Cream Tangerine rounded out the lineup Friday and Saturday nights, respectively. Both groups made the trek from Seattle to perform at the gazebo on Main Street — the Shindig’s main stage.

The logging show has always showcased the city’s industrial history, Naslund said. Former Sultan mayor C.H. Rowe was honored as this year’s grand marshal of the exposition, which included ax throwing, firewood chopping and spar pole climbing contests.

Rowe is one of the few self-proclaimed old-timers left in the area who worked the field when logging was in its heyday. He first attempted to enter the workforce at 17, but was told he was too young to be hired on. So, he went out and bought his own haul truck.

“At that time the in-thing to do was work in the woods,” Rowe said.

For the past 15 years, Rowe has volunteered with his family at the Sportsmen’s Club hamburger booth at the Shindig.

Naslund said the logging exhibition has and always will be an integral part of the community event, along with the carnival, the Show and Shine car show and recently incorporated motorcycle show. Copple said the latter was been set up to benefit Sultan’s Full Bellies food bank for the first time this year. 

The 2017 show had more registered vehicles than in recent years, said event coordinator Stephanie MacDonald. There were 88 cars and trucks, including big rigs that came from as far as Skagit Valley. Dave and Chris Sauvageau’s 1939 Ford Roadster took home the prize for Best of Show this year, she said.

Don McCraw’s 1954 Ford F-150 won for People’s Choice. The Sultan resident didn’t know the vehicle would be entered, let alone that he owned it prior to the event this year; his wife purchased and registered the vintage car as a surprise. He saw it for the first time while checking out the different entries, MacDonald said.

Naslund said one of the most important aspects of Shindig has been to keep it free for people. Aside from the carnival, watching the exhibitions, the entertainment and wandering the street fair can be done at no cost, she said.

The core organizers wouldn’t be able to pull off the event without the troop of community members that sign up every year, including friends and family, Naslund said. A few moments makes it all worth it.

“Standing in the middle of the crowd in front of the pavilion and watching the fireworks going off and the sea of people around me,” she said. “Because if we didn’t build it, all those people wouldn’t be there — they would be back home, bored at their houses.”