“Last year we had about 700 people walk in the door,” says Garden Bar owner Mark (AKA Mister) Langlois, “Pretty freaking amazing, huh.”
Independence Day festivities in Bigfork draw huge crowds, and local businesses are stocking up on goods and staff to meet the influx.
Langlois ordered 70 cases of liquor, and 50 kegs, just for the Fourth. A typical summer weekend calls for about half as much booze and beer.
As for staff, everybody works. The Garden has 26 people on the schedule to cover the 18-hour shift, twice as many as usual.
At Nan’s Café down the street she’ll have six-to-eight people behind the counter at a time. Usually it’s three to four.
“It’ll be a bustling little beehive back here,” owner Nan Kuhn says. She’ll have owned the café for five years in September, “and I have yet to see a parade.” They’ve stocked up with 90 gallons of ice cream and plenty of change.
Both businesses call the Fourth the biggest day of the year, surpassing even the two -ay Bigfork Art Festival at the end of August.
Bigfork’s Independence Day Parade starts at noon on the Fourth, and you should probably start looking for parking … yesterday.