Feast or Famine: Inverness Fair

Point Reyes Peninsula village will jump start the day with the Inverness Volunteer Fire Department’s Annual Pancake breakfast at 8 a.m..

Inverness Fair vendors will unfurl their wares and fine food fare for attendees between 10 and 11 a.m..  The fair founder, Kay Holbrook, envisioned all community groups coming together one day each summer to perform a fundraising extravaganza that would rise above the fun any single group could raise and bolster the efforts of all.

Everybody’s favorite, the Library Book Sale, offers nearly 3000 books in this years’ sale—Nancy Hemingway’s volunteers will be sorting.

Back by popular demand, for the third consecutive year, System 9, a seven-piece band, is said to garner approval from young and old with a broad base of familiar tunes loved by all.

In the Children’s Corner: Huckberry Forest, Waldorf inspired preschool, offers craft and handwork projects to little ones; interactive singer and performer Jerry Tenney at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. (previously toured the West Marin Libraries).

Famous Foodstuff Lunching begins at 11 a.m. with…

Inverness store producing BBQ oysters and beer on draft; Inverness Yacht club slicing up watermelon and serving hot dogs to benefit the youth sailing group; West Marin Community Services returns with Tostadas and beer to benefit the Waterdogs; KT’S Kitchen, new to the fair, offers “French” hamburgers with Point Reyes Blue Cheese, Halibut Burgers with special Hollandaise Sauce or Pecan Coffee Cake to polish off your meal or just wet the appetite; The Dickson Family roaming bicycle ice cream cart; and Jim and Julie Monsoon selling Ice Cream to benefit West Marin Senior Services.

The Inverness Garden Club rummage sale famously benefits the scholarship fund, the volunteer fire department selling tee shirts and caps or recharging fire extinguishers;

The Dance Palace selling Duck Derby opportunities; Saint Columbus jamming and  jelling; Inverness Garden Club shares products from bush and tree-jams, jellies and more;

Maidee Moore walking canes can be procured, and will benefit children with cleft lip;

The Inverness Association, selling tickets to the famous raffle, encouraging new memberships, and accepting donations on behalf of Fair host, Inverness Village;

Informational booths include: Coastal Health Alliance, Marin Agricultural Land Trust, and the Point Reyes National Park Service.  The Park Service will unveil one of two electric service vehicles now in the fleet, small SUV’s being tested for NPS service viability.

Up the street in the Art Ghetto find Kathleen Goodwin and Richard Blair photography and books; Jeff Wilson b&w photography; Carol Branan oils; Flower Sierra returns to West Marin with her beaded things, sterling-n-stone jewelry and other curiosities; Lina Prarie displaying her “oh so West Marin” seaweed baskets (as seen in Zuma); and last but certainly not least Dolly Allshire jams and jellies. As rumored–one year, Dolly did not appear. The following week a letter to the editor, to her credit, complained that it was a poorly planned fair—Dolly with her homemade jams and jellies had not been there.

Parking is limited on Inverness way between south of downtown and Highland Road, please carpool. (Wealth of information provided by Jerry Abbott who co-chairs this years’ event with Tom Branon and Ken Emanuels).