Tent City?

One of my stories for the Sentinel this week is going to be on the Chamber of Commerce not sponsoring Wrangell's Tent City Festival this year. I have no clue what Tent City is so I looked at last year's coverage of it. According to Megan Melton (the reporter at the time), the Tent City Fesitival celebrates "Wrangell's rough and rowdy past." Ok... Upon further reading of the article I learned the origins of Tent City. Wrangell apparently played host to hundreds of miners during the 19th century who came here to strike it rich during the gold rushes. Since there wasn't sufficient housing for everyone, people set up tents. These miners established Wrangell as a real town.

The first Tent City Festival took place in Wrangell January 25-27, 1980 and the competitions were beer drinking, beard growing, Tall Tale telling, and a Home Arts Fair. I found some of the competitions and activities for last year's Tent City quite amusing:
Bed Races (wheels are attached to a bed frame and are raced in the street)
Cribbage Tournament
Pool Tournament
Women's Sexy Leg Contest (Shapliest, Stubbiest, Skinniest, Fattest Calf, Most Muscular)
Men's Ugly Leg Contest (Knobbiest Knee, Harriest, Skinniest, Fattest Calf, Most Muscular, Smoothest)
Beard Judging (Softest, Longest, Shortest, Scraggliest, Sexiest)
Sud Drinking (the suds used to be beer but for insurance reasons the suds changed to something non alcoholic)