Crazy Days in Crookston is set for Thursday, July 21, all around Crookston, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The event will have a variety of activities and sales from multiple businesses and organizations in Crookston. The theme for this year’s Crazy Days is carnival/fair due to it happening close to the recent county fairs around Polk County.
Crazy Days is a traditional day of sales where retail stores can sell old merchandise and/or experiment with new deals with other businesses such as restaurants, the Crookston Public Library, and Golden Link Senior Center, participating with their own special deals and festivities. Crookston Area Chamber Executive Director Mark Landa explained that people and businesses use this day to clear their end-of-season items to make great, unexpected deals on their items or on items that have not sold well in the season so far. “In the past, people used this as their day to clear out their end-of-season things so that they would do their major markdowns. Stores aren’t as much of that now, so they use this much as a day to, if they can get a great deal on something, they’ll order a bunch of that in, or if they have something that hasn’t been selling or didn’t move as fast, this is the day that they can move that. So, you can find unexpected deals, they don’t necessarily put everything out there in the papers price by price. They’ll say, all of this type of merchandise is on sale.” Landa said that most of the items will be end-of-summer items, but there can be other items such as spring, winter, or even Christmas items.
Some of these sales include;
- Scott’s True Value will have a 10% off sale on many items inside the store and out on the sidewalk.
- Shear Sisters will have 20% on all of their products.
- Sweetlight Gallery will have their 11×16 canvas prints on sale for $5 with greeting card packages of five for $3, with 25 to 50% off select gallery-wrapped canvases.
- RiverView Health Limited Edition Gift Shop is doing a 35% off storewide sale.
- Real Good Bath & Body is giving a free bath bomb with every $35 purchase
- The Northern Planes Smoking Co. LLC will be in the Sweetlight Gallery and will sell pork rubs at 2 for $25.
- Alison Gotto Designs will also be in the Sweetlight Gallery selling Christmas in July, where she will be selling Christmas door hangers and take-home gifts.
- Sistas Corner will have 10% off on all chairs and other in-store vendors discounts with surprise grab bags.
- The Grand Theatre will have a buy-one, get-one purchase of a ticket if you buy concessions with your film.
- And much more.
Along with the retail stores, other organizations in Crookston will be out with various activities and festivities around downtown Crookston and up on Highways 2 and 75. “The University of Minnesota Crookston (UMC) is going to be set up right beside Scott’s True Value having games and giving away a lot of swag from UMC. The Crookston Classic Cars will set up some of their cars at the parking lot right beside Scott’s, so you’ll be able to go over and look at some really cool cars,” said Landa. “Of course, KROX always does their two auctions at 9:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., which will be held under the canopy right beside Tri-Valley on Broadway. There will also be specials up at RBJ’s from 6:00 to 11:00 a.m. two small pancakes and sausage links for $2.99, and from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., they’ll have two sloppy joe sliders with chips for $2.99, and from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. there’re going to have desserts and coffee for $2.99.”
Along with these events and sales, food trucks like The Lucky Duck, OOf-da Tacos, and Ohana Shaved Ice will be parked around the city and at some participating merchants such as the Grand Theatre, RBJ’s Restaurant, and Scott’s True Value. You can register to win some Crookston Chamber bucks for current participating Crookston Area Chamber members. While most of the events will run from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., there are a few events that will run a bit after, such as KROX’s second auction at 5:30 p.m., a free outdoor concert at the Crookston Public Library featuring the band The Moving Parts, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m., and The Golden Link Senior Center will have live music performing in the evening with a $10 special of potato salad, baked beans, and watermelon at 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. as well.
While Crazy Days is close by, it’s not too late to register your business for Crazy Day’s if you wish to join in on the sales and festivities. “They can still let us know, and we can still try to get the word out. We’ve been pushing Crazy Day’s stuff out for the last month or so, so a lot of it’s out there, but if they get to us, we’ll do our best to try and help them get the word out,” said Landa. If you wish to have your business join the Crazy Day’s festivities, you can contact Crookston Area Chamber Executive Director Mark Landa at mlanda@visitcrookston.com, by phone at 218-281-4320, or you can meet him in his office at 103 South Broadway Street.
