Although the fair is still another month away, the Park County Fairgrounds will be bustling this weekend with a community barbecue, fireworks demonstration and Figure 8 race.

“We enjoy getting everybody together and just having good ole community time,” said organizer Dustin Short of DSE. “There’s not enough of it anymore.”

The American Legion will serve up free hamburgers and hot dogs from 6-8 p.m., with other vendors selling beverages and snacks. The Powell acoustic duo Dulcet River (Tom and Kathy Walker) and Michael Canada will accompany the dinner with some tunes.

Things will get much louder at 8:30 p.m., when DSE begins demonstrating all the new fireworks available at its Powell and new Cody stores. The event will close out with a pyromusical — that is, fireworks set to music.

In a new twist from past demos, Short said he’ll be working in some flame machines, lights and gas mines.

The mines put “a huge flame ball up in the air” and resemble something like “an atom bomb explosion,” he said, with “that big mushroom [cloud] look.”

“It’ll be interesting,” Short pledged.

He expects things will wrap up sometime around 10:30 p.m., though the Powell City Council has permitted the event to run as late as 11 p.m.

Saturday also has a full slate of events, headlined by the Figure 8 race. 

With as many as 70 racers expected to compete on the eight-shaped track, a series of heat trials are being held ahead of the main event. Anyone is welcome to pop into the grandstands and watch the qualifying races, which will run from roughly noon to 3 p.m. 

The grandstands will be cleared following the qualifying runs, with the gates reopened at 4 p.m. and racing set to begin at 5 p.m. Tickets for the event are $15 or $10 for kids 12 and under; box seats go for $25, but those had largely been snapped up by the end of last week.

Short said interest in Figure 8 racing has surged in recent years, and the competition is being split into separate classes for four- and six-cylinder vehicles (men’s and women’s), trucks and SUVs and eight-cylinder machines. The council also agreed to let Saturday’s event run as late as 11 p.m. 

“There will be lots of good racing,” Short said.

Additionally, multiple vendors will be on hand to serve those looking for a bite to eat or something to drink.

A variety of local businesses, which run the gamut from a game store to oil companies, are helping sponsor the weekend events and they’ll be featured at an expo that runs from 1-6 p.m. Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday. Each business chipped in $200, Short said, which will help cover the cost of Friday night’s barbecue and host a “good ole summer evening.”