WHITEFISH — Depot Park in Whitefish burst with art, music, and festive energy as Huckleberry Days marked its 37th year of small-town summer celebration.
According to the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce, more than 100 local artists and artisans brought their work to the festival, continuing a tradition that has made the park an open-air gallery each summer.
"Local is very important to us. There's a lot of people working out of their garages doing those masterpieces, but there's a lot of talent in this valley," Katherine Archibald, Whitefish Chamber of Commerce executive director, said.
Among the featured artists was Kari Bowers, who turns salvaged windows from local historical sites into works of art, an opportunity that came about by chance.
"They were doing the renovations project on the windows in the lodge and so they had pulled them out and I was just in the right place at the right time and got the 250 lot of windows there," Bowers said.
Bowers has spent more than two decades bringing her work to festivals like Huckleberry Days, and she says events like this one fill a real need for artists in the valley.
"It think means a lot because there's not enough galleries for local artists," Bowers said.
Michael Rozell has been coming to Huckleberry Days for years, setting up his pottery and watching the community gather around it. For Rozell, what happens at the wheel is about more than clay.
"I like being able to take something from nothing and make it and shape it into something that others don't know," Rozell said.
This year, Rozell said something felt different about the festival's energy.
"This year is the best year we've had here. Friday it was like I didn't even know where the people were coming from, it looked like opening day at Disneyland," Rozell said.
For Archibald, the secret to Huckleberry Day's staying power comes down to the direct connection between artists and the people who take their work home.
"You get to talk with the artist, you get to learn when they work and then they're from this area and then I get to take it home and now it's a conversation piece at my house," Archibald said.
