On Saturday, Feb. 7, the first-annual Beardfest will be held in Ely, MN. It’s a beard contest, for bearded people with beards and the people who love them. (PHOTO: Aimee Ray, Flickr Creative Commons license)
This week brings Winter Fest to the unique northern environs of Ely, Minnesota. A mining town filled with hippies? Or a hippie town obsessed with mining? You never can tell, but this little burg sure has a lot going on if you know where to look. In this case, you’ll see snow sculptures in the city park in the Feb. 5-15 Ely Winter Festival.
But this year, the town has something new: the first-ever Great Nordic Beardfest will be held in Ely this Saturday, Feb. 7. The Beardfest is not officially part of Winter Fest, but will be held concurrently, bring all manner of bearded and beard-loving people into the mix of, well … other people who probably also have beards for unrelated reasons.
Beards are in right now. It used to be just the hipsters, but now regular guys are growing plausible beards in a fashion that recalls my early childhood in the very late ’70s and early ’80s. I have never tried to grow a beard, but an ill-fated attempt to grow sideburns a few years ago showed that my facial hair comes in red even though I have dirty blond hair (a common Scandinavian affliction).
But other people, people I know, are going nuts for beards. Yet, beards alone are not enough! We want beards that are winners!
The Great Nordic Beardfest will feature First, Second and Third prizes in the four categories you find at international beard and mustache events: Full Beard Natural, Mustache, Modified Beard, Freestyle Beard.
The event will also feature winner-take-all individual awards for Judge’s Choice, Local Beard (bring ID), Bearded Lady (“Anything Goes” they say), Beard from Afar (whose beard drove the farthest), Ladies Choice (the women at the bar vote) and Grey Beard (the oldest full grey beard in attendance).
Find out more, or learn how to register, at the Great Nordic Beardfest web site. Organizes say they want to channel Ely’s history as a lumber town to attract the finest lumberjack beardos they can. I’m paraphrasing.
The Great Nordic Beardfest will be held from 6 p.m. to close at the Boathouse Brew Pub in Ely on Saturday, Feb. 7. Live music will be provided by Ben Weaver and Ian Alexi.
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