Long Weekend Brings Smorgasboard of Events to Missoula

By Brianna Randall, 9-01-06

On several occasions I’ve heard Missoulians lament the lack of “culture” in town, usually folks who have lived in a big(ger) city at some point. I, too, have felt bereft of entertainment choices on a Friday night, especially when comparing Missoula’s repetitive line-up of bands and bars to the nightlife of my last hometown, San Diego.

But anyone, including me, who next complains about having “nothing to do” on a weekend in Missoula needs to take a second look at the listings for what’s shaking in our hip little city. If you can’t find an event you’re dying to attend, I bet you’ll at least get a chuckle out of Missoula’s unique means of combining art, recreation, and food.

This weekend we’re offered an odd but impressive array of everything from fashion shows and food drives to antique exhibits, bike parades and poetry pig roasts—many of them in tandem. Check out this diverse variety of cultural offerings in the Garden City:

Sidle up to the historic Wilma Theater on Friday or Saturday night to watch a soulful rendition of actors pretending to be stoned during “Reefer Madness the Musical.” Not only is it showing at 7:30 p.m., you can also catch a midnight theater fix if the real Missoulians (who aren’t just acting intoxicated) drive you from the downtown bars.

If non-mobile art is more your scene, you can learn all you ever wanted to know about vases and end tables during Montana’s Second Annual Antiques and Art Fair held at the O'Shaughnessy Center on Central Avenue Friday through Sunday. Lectures are available for those interested in identifying and collecting old (but valuable) things.

First Friday is one of Missoula’s favorite traditions, and an excellent way to combine creative art forms with free wine and snacks. A couple of standouts for September’s Art Walk include:
• An exhibit of artfully arranged trash by Adelaide Every (photos only, as she already threw away the original refuse) held at second-hand clothes store, Crazy Daisy, complete with music from The Hermans (playing from somewhere behind the jean rack).

• A Sidewalk Food Drive Fashion Show on the Hip Strip. Not only can you see the latest styles on real, live models, you can donate to the Missoula Food Bank, eat free food, and benefit the community. This Hip Strip event also features rap singers and break dancers right on the sidewalk—obviously.

It’s all fun and games (and somebody likely will get hurt) as the sixth annual Tour de Fat rolls into Missoula’s Caras Park on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fresh from Flagstaff, Arizona the death-defying bike stunts are set off nicely by circus side shows and live music.

You can even join in this circus—everyone’s childhood dream—by meeting at 10:30 a.m. at Caras in the costume of your choice for a bike parade through downtown. To top it off, you can buy plenty of New Belgium beer to grease the wheels, justified by the fact that, as is often the case in Missoula, your beer money benefits local charities.

Lastly, I’d like to bring your attention to a novel new form of entertainment, which captures the flavor of Missoula in a nutshell: a bus full of poets meets a pig roast up Butler Creek. Wave Books of Seattle is hosting a 48-city Poetry Bus Tour, and they stop in Missoula on Wednesday the 6th.

While some cities feature this marathon poetry reading in a jazz club or historic landmark, Missoula needed a different edge—namely the smell of roasting pork on a ranch near the mountains. What better way to spend a Hump Day evening than listening to 17 poets under the big sky.

So, folks...next time we sigh and wonder where the “culture” is in Missoula, perhaps we should simply look a little more carefully for entertainment amidst our sidewalks, dumpsters, and passing-through buses. This city excels at creating its very own brand of culture, seeping from the parks and buildings we walk by each day.
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