The town of Seeley Lake is launching some First Friday events to try to bounce back after a difficult fire season. The first is this Friday night.
Chris Stout, Seeley Lake’s school superintendent, helped organize the event. He said, "The more we can offer in town, and the more that’s going on in it, just benefits us because rural communities in Montana are sort of drying up.”
Missoula-based bluegrass band Good Old Fashioned will be performing at the Filling Station at 8:00 p.m. Local restaurants and stores will be opening their doors, trying to bring in more business in a month that’s traditionally been off-season.
Stout said organizers were inspired by similar First Friday events in cities like Missoula that boost morale and get people out together celebrating the community.
“This year town sort of shut down," said Stout, "so a lot of those businesses lost up to 50 percent of their revenue.”
The 160,000-acre Rice Ridge fire burned for weeks, and cut Seeley Lake’s summer tourist season in half.