RR Trade Show is this Saturday

By Ken Johnston
Editor

Better late than never! That seems to be the trend for the annual Rainy River Trade Show. Last year at this time there were about 30 booths signed up for the event and as of Monday that was the case again!
Coordinator Andrew Hartnell said, “Last year as soon as the paper came out on Tuesday we had about 10 calls of people looking for space!” In the end they had over 50 booths!
Hartnell expects this Saturday to be no different than last year. The RR arena will be packed with interesting booths featuring everything from local businesses, financial services, service clubs to personal care booths and much much more!
The doors of the 6th Annual Rainy River Trade Show open at 10 a.m. and will remain open until 4 p.m. Most booths will be offering their own prizes but this year the Rainy River and District Chamber of Commerce (the event host) will be offering a special door prize. They have two three day passes for the Kickin Up Country music festival to be held in Karlstad, MN, this summer. Big country names like Diamond Rio and Sammy Kershaw are slated to perform there and Hartnell said it is a prize worth over $300! To qualify the public needs to pay the $2 admission at the gate of the event and they will be entered for the draw!
Admission is $2 for 12 and over. Kids 11 and under are free!
Hartnell said that they have secured two food vendors already. “The canteen (at the arena) will open and the Knights of Columbus will have food on the floor of the arena.” He is working to secure at least two more vendors this week.
The chamber will have a booth on the floor this year with a sound system to make announcements throughout the event. “We also recently received a new shipment of the centennial cookbooks which we will have for sale at our booth,” said Hartnell.
He is pleased with the slate of participants this year noting that there are many new ones. “New gives us more variety every year which is great!” he said.
There will also be kids activities held in and outside of the arena. “Best Start Hub has great fun planned for the kids,” said Hartnell.
Last year about 600 people visited the trade show and Hartnell expects the numbers to be strong again this year!
Anyone wanting to rent booth space needs to get a hold of him by Wednesday at 2 p.m. After that they will be setting up the booths based on the numbers they have. He can be reached by calling 852-4551.