First Annual Western Montana Beard and Moustache Festival a success
<p>Mick Copley of DeBorgia won for Full Beard Freestyle.</p>
The DeBorgia Historic Schoolhouse Foundation and co-producers O-Aces Restaurant and the Beer, Beard & ‘Stache Club of DeBorgia are pleased to announce the successful completion of the Western Montana Beard and Moustache Festival over the previous weekend of July 12-14.
Preparations for the Festival began this past January. The goal was to make the Festival a draw for men with facial hair from Butte to Spokane and from Kalispell to Hamilton. The Festival was promoted as the only stand-alone, regional and multi-state Beard and Moustache Festival in the United States. Budweiser, Pepsi, and Harley-Davidson quickly signed on to support the Festival. Additional promotion was done on all college campuses in western Montana, northern Idaho and eastern Washington. A website and Facebook page were created. Additionally, Department of Transportation plans were incorporated for traffic planning. Vendors were contacted and plans made for their participation.
Yet, for all the preparation, going into July it began to appear that the concept of the Festival was NOT catching on. With about 10 days to go, it was in danger of failing!
It was decided to change the marketing plan to “word of mouth” to see if greater participation might develop. It worked! By competition day the Festival could count 23 competitors.
Many of the competitors were local citizens. But the Spokane club sent 4 members to support the Festival and 2 of those members actually conducted the jury functions on behalf of the Festival since local members did not know how to “pre-judge” the appropriateness of the beards and moustaches presented for the 18 categories permitted. One competitor came from San Jose, California. So the goal of a multi-state Festival was met after all.
While there were 18 categories of beards and moustaches only 5 categories were contested.
Winners were: Jim Balenger, Superior, Natural Moustache; “Mick” Copley, DeBorgia, Full Beard Freestyle; Shane Cork, Spokane, Natural Beard; Anthony Diamond, San Jose, California, Natural Goatee; and Julie Balenger, Superior, Whiskerina. Shane Cork also was the “Best of the Best” and overall Festival Winner.
Judges for the contest were Steve McCalmant of DeBorgia and Paige Faucheux of Montgomery, Texas. Bob Kortuem acted as Master of Ceremonies.