Smeltermen's Day Weekend to be packed full, with a couple changes

Smeltermen’s Day Weekend – Anaconda's annual celebration of its history and culture – starts a week from today, and this will be new Discover Anaconda director Celina Van Hyning’s first time helping to plan the festivities.

Van Hyning said Discover Anaconda organized the block party on Friday, Aug. 8, previously known as the Sidewalk Sale, which will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. all along East Park Avenue, which will blocked off for the event. The block party will be followed by an Art Walk from 5-8 p.m. through various businesses in downtown Anaconda. 

Van Hyning said there will be live music on the streets during the Art Walk, which will end with an Artist Reception Party from 6-9 p.m. at Copper Village. The event is a landscape show featuring various artists and mediums.

Saturday will kick off with the Smelter City Scamper, a 5k, 10k, half marathon and children's sprint that begins at Kennedy Common. This year's fun run will be sponsored by Pintler Athletic Center (PAC) and co-hosted by Anaconda Community Market organizers Dina Alibrahim Fike and Alexis Krueger. 

The scamper was previously hosted by PAC (previously the Smelter City Recreation Complex), but the organization has handed the baton to the Community Market. Dina said that this year, the two organizations are co-hosting to ensure everything goes smoothly, and then the Anaconda Community Market will fully take the reins next year. 

Throughout the day on Saturday, the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Historical Resources Board will host “The Ghost of Smeltermen’s Day Past,” a photo exhibit in the multi-purpose building at Kennedy Common. 

And Discover Anaconda also organized the beer garden and market, formerly known as the Brewfest, with a special treat: this year, rather than volunteers from Discover Anaconda pouring beer for attendees, staff from the breweries themselves will be doing the honors, something Van Hyning said hasn’t happened for at least a couple of years.

The beer garden and market will take place from noon to 4 p.m. and feature live music from Missoula-based blues band Mudslide Charley, around 30 vendors and 10 or 11 food trucks, according to Van Hyning.  

Bus tours to the Anaconda Smoke Stack, which are organized by the Anaconda Community Foundation and the Friends of the Stack, will be ongoing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which Van Hyning said is also a change from the last year when tours were only available Saturday and Sunday. Van Hyning said last she heard, the tickets are almost sold out. 

Then on Sunday, Aug. 10, the Smeltermen's Day Parade will march downtown beginning at 1 p.m. The parade route goes down Main Street, turns left on 3rd Street, left on Hickory, and back up to 4th Street and Kennedy Common.

Following the parade there will be music, food and kid’s games at Kennedy Common. The parade and kids games are sponsored by AFFCO and Discover Anaconda is charged with organizing the parade after party, which Van Hyning said is like an “extension of the block party.”

“It has been a long labor of love,” Van Hyning said. 

For more information about the 2025 Smeltermen's Day Weekend, visit https://www.discoveranaconda.com/smeltermen. For stack tour tickets, go to https://anacondacommunityfoundation.networkforgood.com/events/87310-2025.... And check back in with the Anaconda Leader next week for more from Smeltermen's Days past.