Final Alaska Homestead Expo set for Big Lake this weekend

What you need to know: 

• The Alaska Homestead Expo and Marketplace in Big Lake will hold its final event Friday and Saturday before shutting down as an annual expo.
• Organizers plan to replace the large yearly gathering with smaller, hands-on classes and workshops offered throughout the year.
• The event will feature about 100 mostly local vendors, sustainability-focused classes and giveaways, with organizers expecting about 500 attendees this year. Tickets are $5 per person for the expo, or $85 for in-person classes.

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A popular annual Big Lake homesteading expo will shut down after this month.

Organizers said they plan to shift their focus to year-round classes instead of one large gathering.

The Alaska Homestead Expo and Marketplace is scheduled for Friday and Saturday at the Big Lake Lions Recreation Center. Planned classes will focus on home-based sustainability, along with a marketplace featuring local businesses. The event is hosted by Common Ground Alaska Farm in Big Lake.

Expo hours are 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and admission is $5 per person. In-person classes cost $85, with a virtual-only option available for $45. Expo tickets and class schedules are available on the Common Ground Alaska website. A Christian church service is scheduled for Sunday at the Common Ground Alaska property and is open to ticketholders.

The expo marketplace will feature about 100 vendors, most of them local, organizers said.

“It’s not your typical vendor hall,” said Tandy Hogate, co-owner of Common Ground Alaska. “A lot of our vendors and a lot of our teachers don’t do this professionally. A few do, but a lot of them are kind of going out on a limb and just trying to get their business out there. You’ll never find them at another one.”

The marketplace admission fee also includes entry into giveaways for products such as beef and grain scheduled for Friday and Saturday.

Hogate said she created the expo after noticing a need for stronger connections among farmers, artisans, homesteaders and others in the Mat-Su area. The expo was intended to bring everyone together in one place, she said.

The event met that goal, with about 1,600 people attending last year, she said. She expects a smaller crowd of about 500 this year as she winds down the format to make way for year-round classes, she said.

“So many people have made connections,” Hogate said. “Although I think it’s a forever goal, we’re going to focus on more interactive things rather than one big grand gesture.”

For example, organizers recently hosted a cheesemaking and milk-culturing class that ended with participants making a large batch of homemade mozzarella cheese, she said.

“I’d like to do more stuff like that, and you just cannot do that with 2,000 people, or 1,000 people, or even 500 people; it’s just not possible,” she said.

For more information about the expo and marketplace vendors, visit commongroundalaska.com.

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