DAWSON CITY – After a two-year absence due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Dawson City International Gold Show will be back again this weekend.

It’s being organized this year by volunteers from the Klondike Placer Miners Association (KPMA), the Klondike Visitors Association and the City of Dawson.

The Dawson City Chamber of Commerce was one of the original founders of the event back in the 1980s.

However, the chamber has been limping along without funds (the trade show was a major fundraiser) and staff, so the other partners have stepped up to create this scaled-back version of the event.

“As you may know,” says a Facebook post, “the chamber has struggled with the consequences of the pandemic, as many of you have.

“We have not had a staff to support the volunteer board or our membership, and we have not been able to plan nor execute a Gold Show for the past two years due to physical restrictions in place. This has changed.

“This year will see a much smaller affair compared to previous events. To ensure it cannot be cancelled, the trade show will be outdoors with no booths inside the arena.”

The streets will be blocked off to traffic along Fourth Avenue, by the recreation centre and Diamond Tooth Gerties, as well as along Queen Street for most of the stretch from Fifth to Third avenues.

Some 30 vendors will be lining those streets.

They’ll include such industry stalwarts as fuel companies, flight services, mining and construction products, heavy equipment sales, municipal, territorial and Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in government agencies, and a number of NGOs related to the industry.

Weather can be uncertain over the Victoria Day weekend, with everything from tanning weather to snowfall in the past, so all the vendors will be bringing their own tents and canopies.

The Gold Show will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, with set-up happening tomorrow.

The KPMA will hold its annual spring meeting at 5 p.m. Friday at the Palace Grand Theatre.

On Saturday, the Palace Grand will also play host to a number of lecture presentations hosted by the Yukon Geological Survey between 12:30 and 6 p.m.

The KPMA’s Brooke Rudolph will present the recently announced education package, called KPMA 101 and recently depicted in the Star.

Other talks will involve Placer Gold Settings, a presentation of the mummified ice age wolf pup, a placer forum from the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board, drone mapping applications and a fish habitat report.

Usually there would be a banquet. However, the KPMA’s Rudolph said organizers felt it would be better to encourage people to make use of the local restaurants as a kick-start to the revived visitor season this year. A list of options shows a combination of 13 available hotels and eateries.

Reports indicate that just about every hotel room in town has been booked, as well as the RV parks.